Unpaid help

Citizens advisers help individuals to resolve their own issues, and, if necessary, prepare an action plan with them, and assist them during its step-by-step implementation. Some advisers are experts in a given field, catering for the needs of specific social groups, such as individuals with disabilities, consumer rights, or addictions.

Citizens advice may, but doesn’t have to, concern a legal problem. Basing on the analysis of the situation, advisers provide information and present the different options, including the advantages and disadvantages, indicating where to look for further help, and what type of help it would be. It is the individual who decides what to choose, and which type of citizens advice they want.

Who can benefit from unpaid citizens advice?

Citizens advice is available to individuals in difficult situations who are looking for help. It is also available to self-employed entrepreneurs who do not hire anyone.

How can I sign up for a consultation?

• by phone – calling the given Poviat registration number;
• online – sending an email to the given Poviat’s designed email or filling the form available at https://zapisy-np.ms.gov.pl;
• in person – at a Poviat’s Hall.

What do I have to bring with myself?

For in person citizens advice, a written declaration stating the inability to afford paid legal help is required.

Entrepreneurs submit:

• a written declaration stating their inability to afford paid legal help;
• a written declaration confirming that they had no employees within the previous year;
• all the de minimis statements, including agriculture and fishing, about the aid received within the year where citizens advice was requested and within the two previous fiscal years, or declarations with the aid amount during that period, or declarations confirming no aid was received during that period.

Where can I ask for citizens advice?

Citizens advice is offered at over 1500 facilities in Poland, in every Poviat. You do not have to sign up for a consultation in the Poviat of your residence. You might sign up at the most convenient location.

To check those facilities out and sign up for a consultation, click HERE.

Poviat, Local Government, and City Halls, and their respective websites, also feature information about the available facilities.

Can I benefit from citizens advice if I am disabled?

Unpaid citizens help is also available to individuals with special needs. They may benefit from it. Special requests at consultations (such as a sign language interpreter) should be signaled upon sign-up or immediately afterwards. 

Individuals with severe physical disabilities, who are not able to leave their home, and those with communication difficulties, as stated in the Bill of rights from the 19^th of August 2011 on sign language and other means of communication, might also ask for a consultation at a different location or for a remote consultation, by phone or using an online communicator, independently of the epidemic situation.

For more information on unpaid help for people with special needs, click HERE.

A 70-hour preparation training qualifies to become a certified adviser. The trainings are conducted by a qualified training entity, the Association of Citizens Advice Centre.

At first all trainings took place in person, however, due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, it is now possible to do them online, using an internet communicator.

The trainings to become citizens advisers teach how to support others in the process of finding a solution to a crisis situation. Conformingly to the Bill of rights, the training includes 70 hours of classes on citizens advice, of which at least:

• 15 hours on the methodology of advising;
• 20 hours on counseling individuals in debt.

The remaining 35 hours may be dedicated to social security, housing, inheritance, property, labour law, family matters; civil, criminal, or administrative procedures.

The training is followed by an examination. All participants who pass it receive a certificate confirming the skills necessary to become a citizens adviser.

For more information about the trainings and examinations go to training program or rules and regulations on the ZBPO website.

Unpaid Citizens Advice facilities

The recruitment process to counseling facilities operated by NGOs is transparent, allowing an easy selection of top professionals, delivering high quality advice. NGOs are selected through competitions following the existing legal guidelines. The competition is limited to NGOs listed by the voivodes as organisations entitled to offer unpaid help on the territory of the given voivodeship. To be added to the list and to stay on it NGOs need:

• at least two years of experience in advising in a given field;
• adequately qualified staff;
• reliable performance tracks, especially when it comes to confidentiality, professionalism, reliability, and ethics;
• compliance with established service standards and internal quality control norms.

The facilities offering unpaid citizens advice might have specific consultations hours for experts in a given field. These experts put their skills and experience to good use and offer complex help all over Poland thanks to remote consultations. The afore-mentioned specialisations include helping families with children with disabilities, helping victims of domestic violence, especially women and children, protecting personal data, and mediating.

For more information on the opening hours of facilities offering unpaid citizens advice and unpaid legal help, click HERE.

The first plan to establish citizens advisory facilities was created in 1938. There were already almost 200 of them a year later. The fact that it was a public initiative, financed from public funds, and dependent on public institutions, was a crucial element.

Nowadays the facilities are part of a Citizens Advice network, running an online service of information exchange. Organisations offering unpaid help must bear an official quality mark. One of them is delivered by The Legal Society, others by an institution managing the system of unpaid legal help, the Legal Service Commission (LSC). Within the British model, every facility is run as an independent organisation. There is one central facility, at a general level, which integrates them all and strengthens their potential.

The Polish citizens advisory facilities were created basing on the standards that have been established by the British ones within the last 70 years. The first ones were opened in Warsaw, Przemyśl, Wrocław, and Łomża in 1996.

The first facility was created by the Centre of Social Information Association to answer to the needs of society, which underwent transformations after 1989. At that time, citizens advice was understood as offering advice about any aspect of social life, and was to provide a complex assistance to individuals in crisis situations.

The inspiring ideals are based on the supposition that effective assistance refers to the global life situation of an individual, and to the capacity to support them in finding a solution themselves in order to improve their situation. Therefore, citizens advice cannot focus solely on a selected aspect of a problem, such as legal. The first facilities offered specific legal, economic, and educational counselling. However, that was not sufficient for individuals struggling with various problems at once, and on top of that also with resettling, being homeless, or suddenly losing all material means.

Furthermore, the first citizens advisory facilities in Poland were personal initiatives, and, only in 1998, they came together to create the Association of Citizens Advisory Centres and to start working with public, non-governmental, and commercial entities. The association is made of independent organisations: associations and foundations running citizens advice facilities.

The facilities are run by NGOs. The organisations are allowed to run citizens advisory facilities once they are included in the voivode list. The Association of Citizens Advisory Centres has a training capacity and delivers certifications.

Are the facilities offering unpaid help opened during the pandemic?

The facilities offering unpaid legal help remain open during the pandemic. They work in person or remotely, i.e., using remote technologies such as the phone or online communicators (Skype or Microsoft Teams), depending on the Poviat. Some of them offer both in person and remote consultations.

Is it possible to ask for remote counselling?

Some facilities might offer remote consultations by phone or using online communicators (Skype or Microsoft Teams). The general rule being that remote services are mainly for individuals with severe physical or communication disabilities. However, due to the pandemic, they are also offered to all other individuals.

To benefit from unpaid services, you need to fill in a request form. You might do so in person at the Poviat Hall or remotely, i.e., by phone or by filling the form available on https://zapisy-np.ms.gov.pl.

Is the help free of charge?

Unpaid legal help, unpaid citizens advice, and unpaid mediation are free of charge. Individuals in financial difficulties, who cannot afford paid professional services, may benefit from it. The afore-mentioned help is financed from the State budget and aims at granting equal access to justice.

Do the facilities offering legal help also counsel in other areas?

All unpaid help facilities offer full-range counselling. The facilities offering specific legal help most often also offer general counselling. It is therefore possible to sign up for any type of legal advice. To find out what a given facility offers, it is advised to call the Poviat Hall.

Do the citizens advisers also have a legal background?

Advisers may, but do not have to, have a legal background. Advisers might have graduated from different courses, as long as they completed the citizens adviser training.

Can I sign up for a consultation outside of the Poviat of residence?

There is no localisation, i.e., the necessity of doing the consultation in the Poviat of residence, within the system of unpaid legal help. Therefore, individuals can sign up anywhere, independently of their place of residence.

Can I benefit from unpaid advisory if I am a polish citizen living abroad?

Unpaid legal help is available to all Polish citizens, who are unable to afford paid legal help at market prices. Due to the ongoing pandemic, it is possible to do remote unpaid consultations, i.e., by phone or using online communicators. Therefore, Polish citizens living abroad are also able to benefit from unpaid legal help or unpaid citizens advice.

Can I benefit from unpaid advisory if I am a foreigner?

Any individual residing on the Polish territory may benefit from unpaid legal help and citizens advice. However, please bear in mind that most facilities will only offer consultations in Polish. In order to check the spoken languages at a given facility, visit the tab Help for foreigners or contact the adequate Poviat Hall.

Can I benefit from unpaid advisory if I am self-employed and hire employees?

Unpaid legal help is available to natural persons and self-employed entrepreneurs who did not have employees within the previous year. Entrepreneurs hiring employees can’t therefore benefit from unpaid legal help. The previous year is to be understood as the 12 months prior to the date on the declaration stating the inability to afford paid legal help, not the calendar year, fiscal year, or any other period.

Can I benefit from unpaid help more than once?

Entitled individuals may benefit from unpaid legal help and citizens advice to the extent needed by their situation. In other words, they may ask for more than one meeting. They may sign up for more than one services. They may also ask for consultations about different matters, independently of the time elapsed since their last consultation.

Is citizens advisory anonymous?

Yes. Only before in person citizens advice, individuals are asked to sign a declaration stating their inability to afford paid legal help. The declaration includes their personal data, however that data will never be stored with the case data. Therefore, personal data and the case data are not correlated; the saved data are anonymized and the consultation is anonymous.

In case of remote services, i.e., by phone or online communicators, individuals do not sign declarations stating their inability to afford paid legal help, therefore, they do not share their personal data in writing.

Who controls the data within the system of unpaid legal help??

The declarations stating the inability to afford paid legal help are not accessible to third parties. The Poviat authorities administer all the personal data. The leader of the Poviat stores the afore-mentioned declarations for three years, counting from the end of the calendar year when the declaration was filed, in order to allow potential inspections assessing whether unpaid legal help and citizens advice function properly.