Statutory Old Age Pension Scheme
Ubezpieczenie emerytalne
Coverage
Mandatory insurance
- Employees.
- Specific groups of economically active persons, such as the self-employed and civil servants.
- Specific groups of economically inactive persons, such as parents during child-raising periods and home caregivers, claimants of income replacement benefits incl. recipients of sickness benefits, injury benefits, transitional allowances and unemployment benefits.
Exempted
- Judges, public prosecutors, professional soldiers, officers (police forces, intelligence agencies, customs and tax services, and others).
Voluntary insurance
- All persons not compulsorily insured in the statutory old age pension scheme.
Financing
General finances
- Mainly PAYG-financed from insurance contributions.
- Partly tax-financed out of the general budget.
Contribution rates to mandatory insurance
- Fixed share of monthly gross earnings (19.52%) with contribution assessment ceiling.
- Contributions shared in parity between employer (9.76%) and employee (9.76%).
- Self-employed: fixed share (19.52%) of fixed contribution base (60% of national average wages).
- The insured person can choose whether to contribute parts of the mandatory insurance contribution (2.92%) to the OFE (see open pension funds, OFE).
Administration
- The ‘Social Insurance Institution’ (Zakład Ubezpieczeń Społecznych, ZUS) manages the scheme and pays benefits directly to the person.
Qualifying Conditions
Qualifying conditions
- Standard old age pension: statutory retirement age is 60 for women and 65 for men without a specified minimum insurance period.
- Special conditions apply to miners, railway workers, teachers, some civil servants and persons with disabilities.
- Minimum pension: a minimum pension benefit is granted to persons whose income falls below the minimum pension level (100% pension-tested); retirement age is 60 for women and 65 for men; minimum insurance periods: 20 years for women and 25 years for men.
Early retirement
- No possibilities for early retirement for persons born after 31/12/1948.
Deferred retirement
- Retirement can be deferred with positive (permanent) adjustments to pension benefits.
Combining employment & retirement
- Termination of employment (regardless of the amount of income) is a precondition for claiming pension benefits.
- After retirement new employment is permitted with earnings limits: in case income is higher than 130% of the average salary, the right to pension is suspended; in case income is higher than 70% of the average salary, the pension is proportionately reduced.
Benefits
Pension benefits
- Notional defined contribution based on the contributions accumulated in the notional account.
- No maximum amount specified; maximum pension benefit levelled due to contribution assessment ceiling1.
- Minimum pension: PLN 1,200 in 2020 (PLN 1,250.88 in 2021); for persons with a calculated pension income below the minimum pension threshold, subject to compliance with specific qualifying conditions.
Benefit calculation
- Sum of contributions after 1998 in addition to the valorisation of the initial funds associated with the older defined-benefit account, divided by average life expectancy in months.
- Adjustments: yearly adjustments of benefits according to adjustment ratio based on the annual consumer price index and growth of average earnings.2
Taxation and social security contributions
- Pension benefits are subject to income tax.
- Mandatory contributions for health insurance.
Coverage
Financing
Administration
Qualifying Conditions
Benefits
Mandatory insurance
- Employees.
- Specific groups of economically active persons, such as the self-employed and civil servants.
- Specific groups of economically inactive persons, such as parents during child-raising periods and home caregivers, claimants of income replacement benefits incl. recipients of sickness benefits, injury benefits, transitional allowances and unemployment benefits.
Exempted
- Judges, public prosecutors, professional soldiers, officers (police forces, intelligence agencies, customs and tax services, and others).
Voluntary insurance
- All persons not compulsorily insured in the statutory old age pension scheme.
General finances
- Mainly PAYG-financed from insurance contributions.
- Partly tax-financed out of the general budget.
Contribution rates to mandatory insurance
- Fixed share of monthly gross earnings (19.52%) with contribution assessment ceiling.
- Contributions shared in parity between employer (9.76%) and employee (9.76%).
- Self-employed: fixed share (19.52%) of fixed contribution base (60% of national average wages).
- The insured person can choose whether to contribute parts of the mandatory insurance contribution (2.92%) to the OFE (see open pension funds, OFE).
- The ‘Social Insurance Institution’ (Zakład Ubezpieczeń Społecznych, ZUS) manages the scheme and pays benefits directly to the person.
Qualifying conditions
- Standard old age pension: statutory retirement age is 60 for women and 65 for men without a specified minimum insurance period.
- Special conditions apply to miners, railway workers, teachers, some civil servants and persons with disabilities.
- Minimum pension: a minimum pension benefit is granted to persons whose income falls below the minimum pension level (100% pension-tested); retirement age is 60 for women and 65 for men; minimum insurance periods: 20 years for women and 25 years for men.
Early retirement
- No possibilities for early retirement for persons born after 31/12/1948.
Deferred retirement
- Retirement can be deferred with positive (permanent) adjustments to pension benefits.
Combining employment & retirement
- Termination of employment (regardless of the amount of income) is a precondition for claiming pension benefits.
- After retirement new employment is permitted with earnings limits: in case income is higher than 130% of the average salary, the right to pension is suspended; in case income is higher than 70% of the average salary, the pension is proportionately reduced.
Pension benefits
- Notional defined contribution based on the contributions accumulated in the notional account.
- No maximum amount specified; maximum pension benefit levelled due to contribution assessment ceiling1.
- Minimum pension: PLN 1,200 in 2020 (PLN 1,250.88 in 2021); for persons with a calculated pension income below the minimum pension threshold, subject to compliance with specific qualifying conditions.
Benefit calculation
- Sum of contributions after 1998 in addition to the valorisation of the initial funds associated with the older defined-benefit account, divided by average life expectancy in months.
- Adjustments: yearly adjustments of benefits according to adjustment ratio based on the annual consumer price index and growth of average earnings.2
Taxation and social security contributions
- Pension benefits are subject to income tax.
- Mandatory contributions for health insurance.
1 Due to the contribution assessment ceiling being limited to income up to 30 times the average salary, any income exceeding this amount is not subject to further insurance contributions.
2 The adjustment ratio is the average annual consumer price index in the previous calendar year increased by at least 20% of the real growth of the average wage in the previous calendar year.
Legal Basis: Social Security Pensions Act (ustawa o emeryturach i rentach z Funduszu Ubezpieczeń Społecznych).