Turn in benefits. There will be one new ZUS benefit for everyone instead of the current one. Will it be PLN 1,700?

Brussels has launched the excessive deficit procedure against Poland and there is no going back. The government must quickly develop a plan to reduce the deficit to the 3 percent required by European Union standards, and limit the total public debt to more than 60 percent of GDP. This will not be an easy task, especially since social movements in recent years have increased budget spending by tens of billions of zlotys more every year.
Moreover, defense costs are now competitive and cannot be reduced in any way.

It is also important that the labor market needs many workers – especially in services. Several dozen or perhaps even hundreds of people expelled from central and local government administration – local government units – provide better support than migrants from Bangladesh or India.
They will find a new job, more creative than analyzing applications and piles of certificates, they will earn more than the budget department, which, despite a strong salary increase in 2024, is far behind its ‘ market also in terms of wages.

Each benefit and each individual share means significant service costs

There will be cuts and reductions in ZUS benefits and benefits from the state budget. Such calls from politicians appeared almost immediately when it became clear that Poland was among the countries that would be covered by the EU’s policy to reduce excessive budget deficits – the excessive deficit approach.
What does this mean for programs such as 800 plus and others, which have not yet been planned? This provides a solid argument not for changes, including cutting programs like 800 plus, but for making a real revolution – qualitative changes in the state’s social policy.

Poland must implement the excessive deficit procedure, to meet again the levels requested in the European Union: a budget deficit per year not exceeding 3%. budget revenue and public debt below 60%. GDP.
As a reminder, the budget deficit for 2024 was calculated at PLN 184 billion and, according to the EU methodology, it amounts to 4.5%. GDP. To get down to 3 percent. it would be necessary – at the current level of budget income – to cut costs by at least PLN 65-70 billion.
This is a lot, since the Family 800 plus program alone costs the budget PLN 70 billion per year. Additional annual benefits: the thirteenth and fourteenth pensions amount to PLN 45 billion (including more than PLN 20 billion for the fourteenth pension added permanently in 2023).

All this requires a completely new approach to social policy – not only limits on the amount of benefits and other benefits. It would be better to reform the entire social policy, using all possible achievements of new technologies and other modern solutions that allow a significant reduction in the costs of running social programs .
To put it lightly, several dozen, if not several hundred, thousand people are involved in the administration of the programs themselves – in the administration of the government and local government. The size of these savings can be demonstrated with only 800 more transfers and other procedures to be handled only through the Internet and on one ZUS electronic platform.

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This could be great opportunity to implement the idea of ​​unconditional basic income. Although it assumes that one benefit is paid to citizens equally, apart from all other considerations, “equal” in technological settings can be replaced, for example, by a voucher put up for individuals with different amounts appropriate. New digital technologies offer almost unlimited possibilities at no cost.

One benefit from ZUS for everyone: PLN 1,700 for everyone or the amount determined individually

Before the pandemic, the idea of ​​unconditional Basic Income – BDP in Poland, following the example of other countries, was preparing for a big test in the province. Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, the amount of universal benefit was calculated at PLN 1,300. But then, after the pandemic, there was high inflation, so today, adjusted for inflation, this amount would be closer to PLN 1,700. Anyway, this is a minor detail, because the idea is crucial.

In the opinion of experts on the subject, unconditional basic income – such a share, above all, would be a form of balancing the situation in which a large group of citizens who ‘ contributing to the maintenance of the state and contributing to social movements, in return receiving poor health care, poor education and many other services, for which the modern state is responsible – gathering without collect a tenth more as in the Middle Ages, but almost “half” – VAT itself is mostly a 23 percent tax.
In connection with unconditional basic income it could be a basic equality of state aid due to all citizens, including “net payers”.
The issue will gain momentum when the citizens’ bill finally appears in the Sejm. It hasn’t happened yet, but the level of interest in unconditional basic income suggests it’s only a matter of time – and not too far.

Unconditional Basic Income: What are the benefits?

There are also departments in Poland that are willing to pay benefits experimentally – they are just waiting for the money. Just before the pandemic, the program was to be funded by the European Union. Now that the money from the National Reconstruction Plan – KPO has been released, the issue is returning. More than that because this program can fund social projects, with an example of Active Parent, commonly known as Grandma’s.
Currently, new benefits from ZUS can be divided into two groups: those that are certain, not only the date of implementation is known, and new ones, and may be taken into account to the implementation.
Unconditional basic income falls into the second category.
There was a lot of talk about the need to compensate all citizens for the losses they suffered as a result of the pandemic – and this is the idea behind the KPOs created in all countries in the European Union. The concept of Unconditional Basic Income fits perfectly with these assumptions, now we only have to make decisions and eliminate resistance to the new benefit paid by ZUS to the h -everyone, regardless of income or family status.

Unconditional basic income is supposed to ensure that at least at a basic level, those who are now looking at it and commenting on it: this 800 plus, this index , that housing or energy allowance, what about me? Does a well-governed state necessarily mean that some people only contribute to the state while others benefit most?
Many experts say that it is a utopia. Others say that if all the costs of the social transfer service were abolished, including the bureaucracy of submitting applications and recording income – where need to get support, that not much additional money would be needed for such a program.
Concept Unconditional Basic Income – BDP it was already tested before the pandemic in many European and other countries. The most advanced work was in Italy, France and also in Great Britain.
In the first two countries, the project was accepted, and interestingly, it did not win many supporters in Britain. Experts explained this because the UK has a progressive system of social movements that is positively evaluated by society. The price for introducing an unconditional basic income is – remember – the liquidation of other programs that pursue social goals such as those in Poland, eg 800+, 300+ and the like.

Preparations for the test were also underway in Poland, and its implementation depended on receiving adequate funding from the European Union. It was calculated that such a share should be equal to PLN 1,300 and BDP was very popular with the slogan PLN 1,300 for everyone.
However, instead of the expected money, the COVID pandemic happened, which pushed this project to the back. The Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship is the most advanced in the project.

Of course, now there are completely different realities and different needs. However, when solving a problem, it is better to use both proven methods and take advantage of new opportunities, including those provided by technological development. For example, the Polish tourist voucher, which worked once and was also run by ZUS, showed such new possibilities. Nothing stops you from using this technology, but the amount of support available to individual groups of beneficiaries should be different – in terms of amount, frequency of payments, etc. .