Retirement regardless of age. July 31st is an important deadline.

What next for seniority pensions?

July 31 is the deadline for the committee to report on two projects on seniority pensions - the parliamentary and civic ones, and the presidential project on the introduction of personal assistance for people with disabilities.

At Thursday's meeting, Katarzyna Ueberhan (Left) announced that the committee would submit a request to the Speaker of the Sejm to extend this deadline by another three months, i.e. until the end of October.

At the same time, the MP informed that the committee was scheduled to consider these three bills during the September session of the Sejm.

- I think this is good news for everyone, especially for the social side - Ueberhan emphasized.

PiS MP Wioletta Kulpa pointed out that the bills regarding seniority pensions were last considered in the Sejm in July 2024. "We have been waiting a very long time for something to move forward on this topic," she noted.

The committee chairwoman assured that she was "determined" that the bill on this matter would be passed.

Two bills are currently being considered in the Sejm ( lower house of parliament)—one from the Left and one from the Solidarity trade union—concerning seniority pensions. Both propose introducing a seniority pension into the Polish legal system for individuals born after December 31, 1948, i.e., those covered by the new pension system who have completed 35 years of contributory and non-contributory periods for women and 40 years for men. In February 2024, the Sejm held its first readings of these regulations.

Piotr Duda, the leader of "S," has repeatedly called for the changes to be continued. He argued that this solution meets the expectations of people who, due to a loss of strength resulting from long periods of paid employment, are unable to continue working until they reach retirement age.

The current retirement age, effective October 1, 2017, is 60 for women and 65 for men.

The Sejm is also considering the presidential bill on personal assistance for people with disabilities, which was referred to the Social Policy and Family Committee in October 2024. According to President Andrzej Duda's proposal, the service would be available in every district for people over 18 years of age and would be financed from the state budget. The bill provides for 40 to 200 hours of personal assistance per month.

The Ministry of Family has prepared its own draft bill on personal assistance. It will be available on the Government Legislation Center website from December 2024. The proposal, prepared by Deputy Minister Łukasz Krasoń's office, provides for free personal assistant services for people with disabilities aged 13 to 65; the monthly number of assistance hours and the scope of support will be determined individually by a dedicated team.

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