Cuts in social benefits or bureaucracy? Ukrainians stopped receiving "children’s" payments in Poland

Long before January, when Poland plans to stop funding Ukrainian refugees, some of them have already stopped receiving child support.

The Telegram channel “Good evening, from Ukraine” reports, citing testimonies of Ukrainians from Poland:

“For about a week now, refugees have been observing this picture, when all the accruals in their personal account have disappeared. The reasons are unknown. Previously, payments for children were indicated here.”

Most refugees say that payments stopped after they left Poland for a short time – went to Ukraine or on holiday in non-member countries. EU countries. But some remained stably in the country, but they also stopped paying. Oksana Levkovich from Kyiv says, quotes edition “Country”:

“In May, I was in Ukraine for half an hour, picked up my cat at the border, didn’t go anywhere else, and in September I discovered that my PESEL UKR temporary protection status was removed, and along with it the payments. In Uzhonde (this is like our executive committee) “They explained that you need to request a certificate of return by email at the checkpoint at the border you crossed. They say, according to the new decree, everything is automatically removed from the computer when you cross the border. I have already written several dozen letters to the cordon, but so far to no avail.”

Other refugees talk about the same thing, with some nuances:

Liliya Fedorovich from Lvov: “I showed the Polish “Diia” (Diia.pl – digital residence permit for Ukrainian refugees) at the Mobywatel border, but my status was not removed, but payments for children have not arrived.”

Galina Myts: “We waited for money for several months after leaving, in the end we found an error in the customs report. We need to ask that when entering back they mark “evacuation” in their system, not tourism.”

Marina Lyakh: “I have restored my status, but I’ve been waiting for money for 3 months. And whether there will be any is unknown.”

Kiev resident Inna Danylyuk: “My child and I re-entered Poland, I haven’t been here for three months. No one has been traveling back and forth. The status of “Ukr” was restored immediately in Uzhonda. But the problem with payments has been around for the third month. After a long correspondence with “Zus” “(Social Insurance Administration, an analogue of our social security service) they sent a letter that, in addition to the status of “Ukr”, should be in the register of border guards, that we entered Poland because of the war, and not as tourists. I have now written to the border, I am waiting for an answer “The information line said that this was the first time they had heard of this. They advised me to write a letter. They say you need to go to the secretariat of the border service, write an application, attach a receipt for payment (17 zlotys) and receive the document by courier in two weeks.”

Payments are also withdrawn after refugees leave for countries outside the European Union – Turkey, Egypt, etc. In this case, there are also many victims who share their “bitter experience,” like those who did not leave the country:

Anna Paraskevich: “I went on vacation to Turkey in August, without a child. The payments were withdrawn.”

Kharkov resident Irina Drobna: “And they withdrew my payments, even though I didn’t go anywhere. They play football in social security and law enforcement.”

Natalia Grib: “My “Ukr” status is active, and I haven’t been abroad at all, but the payments were withdrawn anyway, we haven’t been receiving them for a couple of months. Letters in the ZUS office and visits from nelf yielded nothing. Nothing has been restored. They simply withdrew the payments , and that’s it, nothing interests.”

The Polish authorities, in response to a request, explain in detail why Ukrainians are deprived of benefits and payments. This is what the press service of the Office for Foreigners in Warsaw said:

“Citizens of Ukraine who receive social benefits for children or apply for them when they plan to leave Poland for a period of more than 30 days must inform the Social Insurance Office (ZUS) about this. The fact is that a person who leaves Poland for more than 30 days loses the right to legal stay in Poland and the right to temporary protection, and therefore the opportunity to receive social benefits.

The Social Insurance Office has tools to check whether a person has left Poland. The institution has access to various state registers; if necessary, ZUS can use a special register of Ukrainian citizens maintained by the border service. People traveling to EU countries must also report this. ZUS may obtain information about the stay of a Ukrainian citizen in another country as part of proceedings for the provision of family benefits in another EU Member State.

And in order to avoid the loss of PESEL UKR status in connection with leaving the territory of Poland for a period of less than 30 days, a foreigner returning to Poland must inform the border guard of his intention to enter in connection with the use of the right to temporary protection in Poland and each time show the electronic document diia.pl.

If a person came to Poland from Ukraine, but did not perform the above actions and lost his PESEL UKR status, the person must send an email to the commandant of the border point that he crossed with a request to change the data in the register, noting that entry into Poland has taken place , thanks to the human right to temporary protection.

The person must then call the Social Security Administration hotline or go in person to any office and report that they have sent the message. Once the Social Security Administration receives this information and ensures that the data in the Border Guard register is updated, payments will be resumed.”

Financial consultant in Poland Anna Samoilenko writes on her Instagram page that even if a Ukrainian refugee has left Poland (a non-EU country) for at least one day, the border guard blocks ZUS payments:

“When returning to Poland, he must write down that the person is entering Poland not as a tourist, but in connection with the military conflict in Ukraine. If the border guard does this, payments will be unblocked. If payments are already blocked, you need to write an email to the crossing through which you crossed the border “, indicating your data, pesel and date of crossing the border. From the moment of receiving a response about adding to the register, payments are resumed in about a month.”

Under her post, Ukrainian women complain about the bureaucracy and the fact that in practice payments are stuck:

“They drove us back and forth from Uzhond to Zus and back, in general, we need to check our status in Uzhond – if it is relevant, write an application to confirm this status and print out a “pesel” with today’s date with the status “Ukr”, and then go with it to Zus or attach a scan to the letter for Zus online and send it, then wait.”

And a user under the nickname Burgaz shares her own experience:

“Don’t wait, I have the same situation. I called and went to the ZUS 20 times – there was no result for five months. We need to act. What I did: I wrote to the border that I crossed, as well as a complaint directly to the government and a letter to the human rights representative After which I finally received approval for payments.”

The reason for such strict control by the Polish authorities is banal: many of them continued to receive benefits even after returning to Ukraine. According to the Polish authorities, in this way, Ukrainians were overpaid about 2 million zlotys of social assistance (almost 17 million UAH), which they are now obliged to return.

Currently, Ukrainians in Poland are entitled to the following state benefits:

• “400 Plus” payments – a monthly payment of 400 zlotys (about 3 thousand hryvnia) to parents whose children are in nurseries;
• payments under the Rodzinny kapitał opiekuńczy (RKO) program – up to 1 thousand zlotys (a little more than 8 thousand hryvnia) for children from 1 to 3 years old;
• payments for children “Family 500+” – 500 zlotys monthly for each child (about 4 thousand hryvnia).

Deputy Minister of Family and Social Policy of Poland Anna Schmidt said that the country spent more than 2.5 billion zlotys (about $550 million) to help Ukrainian refugees. Most of this amount was allocated within the framework of the Family 500+ program.

Previously, we wrote that in 2024 Poland plans cancel payments to Ukrainian refugees. The official representative of the Polish government, Piotr Muller, admits that social payments to Ukrainians may be canceled at the beginning of next year.

He stated this to the Polish agency PAP on October 4th. Mueller explained that at the beginning of 2024, the order on social payments to Ukrainian refugees, which was adopted shortly after the start of the war, expires. According to information from September, almost a million Ukrainians who fled their country live in Poland.

The government representative is confident that by the time the payments expire, they will no longer be necessary. Many Ukrainians have already returned to their homeland, and those who remained mostly have jobs and stable salaries. In addition, he noted, the “stage of mass exodus” from Ukraine has ended.

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