Poland's ZUS to centralize debt collection under President

The Polish Ministry of Finance has drafted a bill that would strip 43 regional directors of the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) of their authority to enforce overdue contribution payments. The President of ZUS would become the sole administrative enforcement organ for the entire country, allowing cases to be transferred between branches and equalising workload disparities.

The reform, set to take effect 12 months after publication, does not create new obligations for payers but reorganises how enforcement actions are administered. In 2025 ZUS issued 3,467,713 enforcement titles covering roughly 9.68 billion PLN, with more than 15 million titles still pending. All existing cases will remain valid, and the President will assume the rights and duties previously held by the branch directors.

The change targets all debtors subject to ZUS enforcement, including businesses with unpaid contributions, former entrepreneurs with arrears, and individuals owing overpaid benefits.