MPs from Poland’s Konfederacja party have filed a bill in the Sejm that would add a third condition to the payment of the minimum pension, a move its authors say would curb so-called pension tourism. The change would require a specific amount of capital accumulated in the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) and, as a pensions expert notes, would hit Polish claimants just as hard as foreign ones.
Under the current rules, ZUS divides the capital a person has accumulated by the forecast of further life expectancy. The result of that calculation sets the amount of the benefit paid out to the retiree. When the figure falls below the minimum pension of 1,978.49 PLN gross, the state covers the difference — but only if two conditions are met.
Poland has signed a set of bilateral social security agreements, including with Ukraine, Belarus, Australia, Israel and Canada. They allow ZUS to add together periods of work in both countries when establishing the right to the Polish minimum pension, „Fakt” reported. A citizen of another state who spent decades working in Ukraine could therefore secure the Polish minimum pension after a single month of legal employment in Poland and one contribution paid on the minimum wage.
Konfederacja points to Ukraine’s low benefits
The authors of the proposal say the present wording of the regulations benefits mainly foreigners who work in Poland only briefly. In extreme cases, they argue, people whose Polish pension reaches 200-300 PLN receive a top-up from the state bringing them up to the minimum level.
In the justification attached to the bill, the MPs note that Ukrainian pensions are significantly lower than Polish ones. The minimum pension in Ukraine stands at 2,595 hryvnias in 2026, roughly 214 PLN, which in their view creates a strong economic incentive for such arrangements.
To close that gap, Konfederacja wants an insured person to satisfy a capital test in addition to reaching retirement age and completing the required contribution period. The threshold has been set at 25 times the minimum wage, which at today’s minimum pay of 4,806 PLN gross equals 120,150 PLN.
Dr Marcin Wojewódka, a legal counsel and expert at the Instytut Emerytalny, was asked to assess the idea. He observed that the bill itself carries no discriminatory character.
– The project does not have a discriminatory character on grounds of citizenship – said Dr Marcin Wojewódka.
He went on to note that the new condition for acquiring the right to the minimum pension would be identical for every insured person, Poles included.
A capital condition that would also catch Poles
Figures from ZUS cited by „Fakt” show that roughly 500,000 people in Poland receive the minimum pension, with the state topping up the lowest benefit for about 60,000 to 70,000 seniors. Those recipients would keep their payments, because the Konfederacja draft is not meant to affect rights that have already been acquired.
The bill now awaits parliamentary work in the Sejm, where its fate will depend on the stance of the remaining parties. Its supporters frame the capital requirement as a way of tying the top-up more closely to contributions actually paid into the Polish system, while critics point to the roughly 500,000 minimum-pension recipients and the tens of thousands of top-ups that would be re-examined for anyone reaching retirement age in the future.
Źródło: WNP.PL, Fot. PAP/Leszek Szymański
