Seniority pensions – the Sejm resumes work on the possibility of early entitlement
The Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy has been tasked with drafting the Council of Ministers’ position on bills regarding seniority pensions that are currently under consideration. The ministry document has been submitted to the Standing Committee of the Council of Ministers, which has commissioned inter-ministerial consultations on it. Although the government’s official position has not yet been published following a long period of the bills being ‘on hold’ in the Sejm, it is now clear that the government has taken concrete steps regarding the possibility of retiring up to seven years earlier.
The bills currently being debated in the Sejm, a citizens’ bill (Sejm document No. 27) and a parliamentary bill (Sejm document No. 187), provide for the possibility of acquiring the right to a pension upon reaching the relevant insurance period, currently 35 years for women and 40 years for men, regardless of the statutory retirement age (60 and 65 years). In practice, this means the possibility of ending working life up to 7 years earlier (at the ages of 53 and 58 respectively), provided that contributions have been paid continuously.
The key difference between the proposals is that entitlement to the benefit is conditional on its minimum amount. Under the MP proposal, a pension cannot be lower than the minimum benefit.