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The Council of Ministers adopted a draft amendment to the Act on the “Family 500+” programme

31.08.2021

Just like in the case of the “Good Start” programme, soon the submission of an application for the child-support benefit under the “Family 500+” programme will be possible online only. Also, the Social Insurance Institution will be involved in the service of the programme. The Council of Ministers adopted a draft amendment to the Act on this matter. Families can rest assured – the most important rules of the programme will remain unchanged and no one who has the right to the benefit today will lose it.

Act on the “Family 500+”

The Council of Ministers adopted a draft amendment to the Act on state aid in raising children and certain other acts. What does this mean in practice?

  • Transfer of the service of the programme to the Social Insurance Institution
  • Soon the submission of applications for the child-support benefit will be possible online only
  • The benefit will be paid only to the bank account
  • In matters of EU coordination of social security systems, child-support benefits will be immediately paid in full amount to persons who have been deprived of this benefit so far or have received it in a reduced amount.

The Social Insurance Institution will be involved in the service of “500+”

Today, the communes are involved in the handling of matters related to the child-support benefit, and in matters requiring decisions related to the coordination of social security systems – the competent institution is the voivode. This situation will change.

In accordance with the amendment to the Act, the service of the programme will be implemented by the Social Insurance Institution.

– This means considerable savings. According to estimates, this change will reduce the costs of the service of the “Family 500+” programme by approx. PLN 3.1 billion in the years 2022-2032 – informs the Minister of Family and Social Policy, Marlena Maląg.

You can apply for the benefit online

Another change in the “Family 500+” programme concerns applications. Just like in the case of “Good Start”, soon the submission of an application for the child-support benefit will be possible online only.

Even today, parents are dealing with it perfectly. As early as in 2018, 32.3% of applications were submitted online. In 2019, it was already 65.8%, and in the first four months of 2021 – as much as 84%.

– Important information is that during the period of submitting applications for the child-support benefit in each ZUS unit, computers will be made available to interested customers where it will be possible to complete the application, also with the assistance of a ZUS employee. Parents who, for various reasons, will have problems with submitting an application on their own can expect assistance – explains Minister Marlena Maląg.

It is also planned to create in this period additional, mobile application submission points in other establishments or offices (e.g. Post Office, KRUS).

Benefit to be paid to the bank account

The amendment to the Act also assumes that the child-support benefit will be paid only in a non-cash form to the bank account number indicated by the applicant.

As with online applications, the payment of benefits in the non-cash form is also very popular among Polish families. Among people receiving child benefits – such as, inter alia, family benefits or child-support benefit – only in the case of less than 2% of people, this payment takes place in a different form than to the bank account. The proposed solution means, first of all, the optimisation of the process and reduction in service costs.

 

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