Event DSN, maternity and paternity: managing daily benefits

Quick answer. DSN maternity paternity relies on a work stoppage signal sent to the health insurance fund, in principle within 5 days. It triggers the daily benefits (IJSS) paid to the employee, or to the employer in case of subrogation. Unlike sickness, maternity and paternity have no waiting period.

An employee tells you about a pregnancy or an upcoming birth. Behind the good news, the employer has a chain of obligations to set in motion: signal the leave in the DSN, suspend the contract, manage any pay maintenance, and track the payment of the social security daily benefits (IJSS). One missed step means a delayed payment for the employee, or an overpayment that is hard for the company to recover.

This article details, step by step, how to handle a maternity or paternity leave in payroll, from the event DSN to the payslip, clearly separating the rules specific to each leave.

The work stoppage signal, or event DSN, is the message the employer sends to the health insurance fund to report a leave: sickness, maternity or paternity. This signal is sent, in principle, within 5 days.

It is what opens the right to the daily benefits. Without a correct signal, the health insurance fund does not have the salary data needed to calculate and pay the benefit. The signal states the reason, the dates, and the subrogation choice where applicable.

The logic is the same for maternity and paternity, but the durations and calculation rules differ. That is what we detail below.

Maternity leave has a legal duration of 16 weeks in the standard case: 6 weeks before the birth (prenatal leave) and 10 weeks after (postnatal leave). This duration is extended for a third child or in case of multiple births.

Paternity and childcare leave is 25 calendar days, raised to 32 calendar days in case of multiple births.

Maternity vs paternity comparison table#

The key point: for both maternity and paternity, the daily benefits are paid with no waiting period. The 3-day waiting period applies to sickness, unless a more favourable collective agreement provision applies. This is a major difference from a standard sick leave.

The daily benefits are calculated on the salaries of the 3 months before the leave, capped at the monthly social security ceiling (PMSS), set at 4,005 EUR on 1 January 2026.

They are paid for each day of the leave, including Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. This often surprises company owners used to counting in working days.

For paternity, the maximum daily benefit on 1 January 2026 is 104.02 EUR per day. This cap stems directly from the PMSS used in the calculation.

By default, the health insurance fund pays the daily benefits directly to the employee. But if the employer maintains the salary during the leave, it can receive the benefits itself: this is subrogation. It must be reported in the DSN.

Pay maintenance is not automatic: it depends on the applicable collective agreement. Some agreements require full or partial maintenance, others do not. This is the first thing to check before setting up payroll.

Subrogation and deadlines summary table#

1. Collect the supporting document and dates. Gather the pregnancy certificate or the paternity leave request, and record the start date and expected end of the absence.
2. Check the collective agreement. Identify whether and to what extent pay is maintained, which drives the subrogation choice.
3. Send the signal via event DSN. Report the leave to the health insurance fund, in principle within 5 days, stating the reason and the dates.
4. Report subrogation where applicable. If you maintain pay, opt for subrogation in the signal.
5. Process the absence on the payslip. Suspend the contract, deduct pay for the absence days, apply any maintenance and the benefits offset.
6. Check the benefits statement. Verify the number of days paid (weekends and public holidays included) and reconcile the amounts with the declared items.
7. Manage the return. Adjust the return-month payroll and archive documents and statements.

In payroll files, paternity leave generates more errors than maternity leave, even though it is shorter. Why? Because it is often handled in a rush, at birth, and counting in calendar days (not working days) unsettles managers used to a weekly rhythm.

The second point of attention is subrogation. Many employers maintain pay out of habit or goodwill, without checking what the collective agreement actually provides, and without ticking subrogation. The result: the employee receives both the maintained salary and the daily benefits, and the company then has to recover an overpayment, which is always delicate.

The most frequent risk is not a calculation error, but a late or forgotten DSN signal. A signal sent past the deadline delays the employee's payment, who feels it immediately, especially during a long maternity leave. The employee's cash flow is at stake, and so is trust with the employer.

The other silent risk: applying a 3-day waiting period out of reflex. This period applies to sickness, not maternity or paternity. Applying it wrongly reduces the benefit and distorts the payslip.

Build a documentary reflex as soon as the news is shared. A tracking sheet per concerned employee, with the announcement date, the expected delivery date, the DSN signal date and the subrogation choice, prevents most omissions. Combined with up-to-date payroll software, it secures the chain.

To go further on payroll organisation and securing your declarations, our social and payroll support in Paris handles these signals on behalf of our clients. And if you run payroll in-house, a tool such as Silae plays a central role in automating the signal and the benefits offset.

A Paris SME hands us a file after an overpayment. An employee on 25 calendar days of paternity leave had received their salary fully maintained, but subrogation had not been ticked in the DSN. The health insurance fund therefore paid the benefits directly to the employee, on top of the maintained salary. The adjustment required several months of exchanges. With subrogation correctly declared from the signal, the company would have received those benefits directly, with no recovery to manage.

• Check the 2026 PMSS (4,005 EUR per month) in your payroll setup: it caps the benefits calculation.
• The maximum paternity daily benefit is 104.02 EUR per day on 1 January 2026.
• Never apply a waiting period to maternity or paternity.
• Keep every supporting document and statement: they are the first item requested during an audit.

Managing leaves is part of a wider payroll chain. For other high-impact events, see our analyses on the impact of a labour dispute on payroll and on the 2026 single degressive general reduction.