Poles Storm ZUS Offices In The Wake Of Pension System Reform
Officials brace themselves for one of the most challenging tasks ever: implementation of the pension system reform. Polish government decided the state the age would be lowered from 67 for all Poles to 65 for Polish men and 60 for Polish women. The new law is soon to come into force. This will happen on 1 October 2017. In practice, this means a big upsurge in the number of people retiring and applying for pension payments.
The state retirement age was moved up to 67 for both sexes in 2013. Now, that reform has reversed. In effect, many more people will qualify for retirement than normally. Employees will have the right to retire from the 1st of October but the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) is accepting applications and providing advice from the beginning of September. Over 300 thousand people are expected to file their application for state pension by the end of the month. In the first four days of September, ZUS offices were visited by 75 thousand applicants but later the number of visitors started dropping.
The reform is a big challenge for Social Insurance Institution staff. Local branches of ZUS opened designated counters where prospective pensioners may consult with retirement advisors and file their applications. The government hopes not all those qualifying for retirement will decide to leave their job as this means more money from the state budget needs to be assigned to pension payments. Also, a longer employment period means higher pay after retirement so staying in the job market is beneficial from the point of view of the taxpayer. Officials assume approximately 80% of those entitled to state pension will apply.
Despite the fears the applicants will flood ZUS offices, it appears the institution is prepared for the big change and is running operations smoothly. Another upsurge in the number of pension applications is expected in January, as some people may wait to retire until receiving Christmas bonuses.
The cost of the pension age reform is estimated at 54 billion PLN in the next 4 years.
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