According to the latest study prepared by the Polish Network of Economics commissioned by the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS), the pension situation of self-employed in Poland is presented in dark colours. The document, although completed in June 2024, has not yet been made public, which raises many controversy. What conclusions did ZUS make? Let's look at the details.
Self-employed and the Future Unprotected
The vast majority of single-person entrepreneurs pay minimum social safety contributions. Jan Oleszczuk-Zygmuntowski, co-chair of the Polish Economics Network and coordinator of the report, defines the decision to hide it as a “scandal”.
"The pension strategy in Poland is simply a ticking bomb for self-employed people whose crucial part will become mediocre after retirement," says Oleszczuk-Zygmuntowski in a conversation with Virtual Poland.
The 4 key conclusions of the study paint a dramatic image of the future of Polish self-employed:
- Minimum contributions, minimum pensions: As much as 99.18% of single-person business activities pay contributions at the lowest possible level. Although many self-employed people accomplish income far higher than average, their contributions are minimal, which translates into very low future benefits.
- No minimum pension guarantee: Individuals operating for 30-35 years, if they have started working after 1998, may not rise adequate resources to grant a minimum pension.
- Women most at risk: The lower retirement age of women and breaks in maternity and childcare employment make them the most susceptible to pension poverty.
- Voluntary Social safety – costly for the budget: The introduction of a voluntary contribution strategy would lead to a situation where the state budget would gotta add hundreds of millions of PLN to self-employed pensions all year.
Disfunctional insurance model
According to Virtual Poland, the authors of the study considered the current model of self-employed social safety to be dysfunctional and conducive to labour marketplace pathology. "The statistical self-employed achieves on average twice as much income as a full-time employee, while at the same time paying importantly lower social safety contributions," the study points out.
Experts stress that specified a model not only weakens the pension system, but besides affects the full labour market, favouring issues specified as the avoidance of contributions or the deficiency of collateral for workers.
Why was the study hidden?
Although the study was ordered by ZUS during the word of Prof. Gertrude Uścińska, it has not been officially presented to the public. Jan Oleszczuk-Zygmuntowski suspects that possible causes are uncomfortable conclusions that could trigger broad social debate and influence government policy towards self-employed people.
"It is incomprehensible to me why we cannot print the study created by us, since ZUS does not want to do so. It looks like an effort to hide conclusions from citizens," the expert concluded.
Need for improvement of the system
Experts clearly point to the request to improvement the social safety strategy in Poland. The current model not only leads to the marginalisation of future self-employed benefits, but besides exacerbates inequalities in the labour market.
The conclusions of the study should be the starting point for a broad debate on the future of the Polish pension strategy and the function of the state in securing the financial future of its citizens. Will the time yet come for liable decisions? Time will tell.
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"Pre-election manipulations"? ZUS hides study with uncomfortable data for self-employed
