– The most important incentive to prolong economic activity and postpone retirement is built directly into the pension system. The longer you work and the later you start to receive your pension, the higher it is. One year is up to 15%. If we work, the contributions are still credited to our retirement account and the entire accumulated capital is indexed annually – this year 9.33%. In addition, a shorter life expectancy is assumed for the calculations, Prof. Gertruda Uścińska, President of ZUS.

– Such a statement is true, but not for everyone. First of all, these are women who will be entitled to a periodic capital pension, and this applies to any woman who has more than 5 thousand. PLN on the subaccount at ZUS – explains Tomasz Lasocki, expert in the field of social insurance at the University of Warsaw.

Since 2011, the sub-account has been part of the insured account held in ZUS. Originally, it was reserved for members of the OFE, but since February 2014, it is accessible to all those who contribute to the pension.

A periodic capital pension is available to women born after 31 December 1948 and belonging to the OFE, aged over 60 (common retirement age for women), entitled to an old-age pension according to the new rules. and having an appropriate amount of funds in his sub-account in ZUS (from March 1, 2022 to February 28, 2023 it is PLN 5,128.80 (twenty times care allowance) Everyone can check the status of his ZUS sub-account by logging in via PUE or at a ZUS branch.

– When a female beneficiary of such an old-age pension reaches the normal retirement age for men, the old-age pension is automatically recalculated, without deduction of pensions received from the main ZUS account, but only from the sub -account. Accordingly, a woman who retired at 60 and who will turn 65, after recalculation by ZUS, will have a 40-60% higher pension, depending on the age group. – emphasizes Tomasz Lasocki.

This is another example of how the Polish pension system is repaired following various reforms and their changes, during which all accompanying regulations were forgotten. As a result, some are losers (until recently 1953 was affected), but there are groups who gain, such as the one entitled to a periodic lump sum pension.

– The pension system should work like a piggy bank, ie you save it, and later you break it, the more you have. However, this is not the case. In this case, the legislator has created a situation where eligible women have already broken the piggy bank once, but when they reach 65, it miraculously recreates itself and is broken again. This principle was introduced when the pension age was increased by the PO government as a sort of compensation which was to disappear from the system when the pension age was equalized, but when the pension age was lowered by the PiS government, this mechanism was forgotten. This is an obvious oversight and a legislative error in reversing the reform, but I cannot imagine any government daring to abolish it in the future. Therefore, it does not pay women to delay their retirement. It is much more profitable to retire and continue working. The only argument that can prevent them from taking this step is the risk that they will not be put back to work (to receive a pension, the employment relationship must be terminated earlier – editor’s note). Women, due to the fact that they reach the general retirement age (60), can work without income limits while receiving a pension, and they also receive the 13th and 14th pensions – explains Lasocki.

He adds that it is generally advantageous to combine receiving a pension with additional work, because retirement one year later means that the benefit will be 15% higher, but during this period 12 pensions plus the 13th and most of the 14th performance is lost. . . It is only in the seventh year of receiving the pension that the decision to delay this decision for a year begins to “come back”. For a man, delaying retirement for a year, not to 65 but to 66, does not begin to pay off until he is 73.

Monika Krzesniak-Sajewicz