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Unemployment Insurance in EU->Poland
Unemployment insurance in Poland
This article is about what benefits you are entitled to if you become unemployed. You will also find out about what conditions must be met to, in the case of loss of work, apply for unemployment benefit.
The benefits described are:
- unemployment allowance (zasiłek dla bezrobotnych)
- pre-retirement benefit (świadczenie przedemerytalne)
Under what circumstances am I entitled to benefits?
If you have worked for at least 365 days in the last 18 months and have been paid the minimum wage, you may be entitled to unemployment allowance. To apply for the allowance, you need to register in the labour office situated in the district which you live in. The allowance will be granted if you do not receive any employment, internship, or training offer.
The allowance is granted regardless of whether you were employed by someone, or self-employed. It is important to pay compulsory monthly contributions to the Labour Fund. Your employer or you yourself, if you are self-employed, are responsible for doing this.
You can also qualify for pre-retirement benefit if you were dismissed from work, have a long enough work history, and are near retirement age. However, you can only apply for this benefit six months after obtaining unemployment allowance.
What conditions need to be met?
To qualify for unemployment allowance, you must:
- have been employed for at least 365 days in the last 18 months (this period also includes employment in other countries of the European Union)
- have earned at least the minimum wage during this period
- register at the district labour office
- not receive any work, internship, or training offer
To qualify for a pre-retirement benefit, you must:
- be registered as an unemployed person
- have claimed unemployment allowance for at least 6 months
- have a long enough employment history depending on the individual case
- be nearing retirement age
- have lost your work for reasons connected to the employer (removal of the employer or insolvency of the employer)
- within a period of 30 days starting from when the district labour office issues the document which entitles you to 6 months of unemployment allowance, you must make the required contribution in your local branch of the Social Insurance Institute (ZUS).
What am I entitled to and how do I apply?
Unemployment allowance
To apply for unemployment allowance, you have to register in the local Labour Office (a link to the list of labour offices in each district can be found in the "Who to contact" section). It will be paid to you for the next 6 or 12 months. The amount which you receive will depend on the length of your employment.
Unemployment allowance will be paid to you for 12 months if you fulfil one of the following conditions:
- the rate of unemployment in your district is higher than 150% of the average country unemployment rate
- you are over 50 and have worked a minimum of 20 years
- you are supporting a child aged over 15 and your spouse is also unemployed but cannot claim unemployment allowance anymore
If you do not fulfil at least one of the conditions mentioned above, you will be paid benefit for 6 months.
The amounts from 1 June 2023 are:
| Work experience | Amount for the first three months of claiming benefit (per month) | The amount for the remaining months of benefit (per month) |
| up to 5 years | PLN 1,192.90 | PLN 937.30 |
| from 5 to 20 years | PLN 1,491.90 | PLN 1,171.60 |
| at least 20 years | PLN 1,790.30 | PLN 1,405.90 |
Amounts given above are gross amounts. A contribution for health insurance and an advance payment for income tax is taken off from these amounts.
Pre-retirement benefit
Amount from 1 March 2023.
The amount of pre-retirement benefits (per month): PLN 1,600.70.
A pre-retirement benefit can be obtained until the legal retirement age is reached. It cannot be connected to other benefits e.g. survivor's pension. Just as for unemployment allowance, the amount given above for pre-retirement benefit is the gross amount.
Documents to be completed
- You must contact the labour office in your district to register as unemployed. Certain labour offices allow you to complete part of the registration process on the Internet
- How to register as an unemployed person?
- Documents required to register as unemployed
- Documents required to register people returning from employment in the EU/EEA
- Application for pre-retirement benefits - ZUS ESP
Know your rights
The links below set out your rights.
- ABC for the unemployed and jobseekers
- Public employment services - compulsory rates, amounts, indicators
- The right to unemployment benefits when travelling in the European Union
- Specific information about pre-retirement benefits
Who do I contact?
Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy – Department of Labour Market (in relation to the unemployment allowance)
ul. Nowogrodzka 1/3/5
00-513 Warsaw
Tel.: +48 538117671
Website: www.gov.pl/web/rodzina
Email: info@mrips.gov.pl
Contact details for local labour offices in Poland.
Social Insurance Institute (ZUS) – Headquarters (in relation to the pre-retirement benefit)
ul. Szamocka 3, 5
01-748 Warsaw
Website: www.zus.pl
ZUS call centre
Consultation hours are 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. on working days. An automatic information system is available 24/7.
Number intended for connections with mobile telephones and fixed and foreign lines: +48 225601600
Skype: zus_centrum_obslugi_tel
Email address for general enquiries: cot@zus.pl
Search engine of ZUS offices by place name or municipality and postcode
This page was last updated in 2024.
- Unemployment insurance in Europe →
Unemployment Insurance in Poland
You might also be interested in:
⇒EU social security coordination
⇒Unemployment Insurance in the Nordic countries
Key points of EU Unemployment Insurance coordination
- Transferring periods of work and insurance between EEA countries As an EU citizen you can transfer acquired rights from Unemployment Insurance when moving between EU/EEA contries. In this way it may be easier to become entitled to unemployment benefit in the country you move to.
In the vast majority of the Member states the aggregation rule become fully applicable as soon as you starts to work in the country. However in Denmark, Belgium and Finland you must work some period there before you can use the aggregation rule.
You need a PD U1 document in the country you leave or if the involved countries use electronically exhange (EESSI) there will be issued a SED U002. The countries who issues the highest number of PD U1 documents are Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Netherlands. The countries who receives most PD U1 documents are Lithuania and Italy. - Transferring unemployment benefits Under certain conditions you can go to another EU country to look for work and continue to receive your unemployment benefits from the country where you became unemployed. The period you can export your unemployment benefits varies from 3 to 6 months in the different Member states.
You have to apply for a PD U2 document in the country you leave, or if you haven't done that the institution in the receiving country must request a SED U008 from the competent institution in your last country.
The countries who issues the highest number of PD U2 documents are Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Denmark. Poland is the country who receives by far most PD U2 documents. - Unemployment benefits coverage According to OECD the net replacement of income after 2 months of unemployment, for a single person without children whose previous in-work earnings were 67% of the average wage varies from 33 percent (Ireland) to 91 percent (Belgium). Read more here..
- Having residence in another EU country than where you work? According to EU social security coordination rules you must only be insured against unemployment in one country at a time. As a generel rule this country is where you work.
In Member states who have compulsory insurance, you will automatically be covered when you start working there.
However you may be insured by your country of residence if you are posted to a EU/EEA country or work in two or more EU/EEA countries at a time. In these situations you can not your self decide where to have unemployment Insurance, but you (or your employer) must apply for a PD A1 document which states in which country you are covered by social security, including Unemployment Insurance. Special rule also apply for cross-border workers ("frontier workers"). - Third-country Nationals working in EU/EEANON-EEA citizens are covered by Unemployment Insurance in the EU countries who have compulsory Unemployment Insurance. In countries with voluntary Unemployment Insurance (Denmark, Sweden and Finland) third-country nationals can become member of an Unemployment Insurance Fund.
In the most countries Third-country nationals can also use the EU Coordination rules when moving within EU/EEA (however not in Denmark, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland).
Third-country nationals in short-tem working relations often faces problems with actually get Unemployment benefits, even though they have contributed to the system. This is due to the fact that one normally need a residence permit which allow one to take any job, and also because of a qualifying period in most countries between 6-12 months.