Polish ZUS Issues Guidance, Alerts on Fraud, Sends Mass Pension Letters, and Faces Entrepreneur Contribution Dispute

The Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) has published a comprehensive guide for current and future parents, explaining eligibility for maternity, parental and sickness benefits, detailing the application process and offering contact options such as a helpline, e‑visits and local offices.

ZUS also issued a warning about scams that target seniors and people with disabilities, in which fraudsters promise to help with the “support benefit” and charge fees or request powers of attorney. The agency stressed that assistance from ZUS is free, urged victims not to pay or sign documents, and advised them to contact ZUS or the police if they suspect fraud.

In a separate operation, ZUS mailed 8,836,400 envelopes to pensioners, combining two notices in each: the updated pension amount after a 5.3 % indexation and confirmation of an additional annual “thirteenth” pension. The letters detail gross amounts, health‑insurance contributions and tax advances, and ZUS encouraged recipients to verify the information. The payouts are estimated to cost about 24.8 billion PLN.

Finally, the Small and Medium‑Enterprise (SME) ombudsman raised concerns that ZUS may retrospectively challenge insurance‑title claims of company owners who are both shareholders and employees. Because corrective filings are barred after five years, affected entrepreneurs could be unable to recover overpaid contributions, prompting a request for legislative action to protect their legal certainty and trust in the state.