Active parent in questions and answers. PLN 1,500 per month for whom?

What “professional activity” justifies receiving money from the Active Parent program? Can the program beneficiaries send their children to the most expensive kindergarten in the city? Is there an income threshold in the program? We answer these and other questions in the text.

On October 1, 2024, the Active Parent program will launch, introducing three new cash benefits for families with small children. It is estimated that it will cover over 570,000. children aged 1 to 3 years.

The Act provides for the introduction of three benefits to the system supporting parents in professional activity and in raising and developing a child aged 12-35 months.

“Active parents at work” benefit;
“Actively in the nursery” service;
“Actively at home” benefit.

Income criterion: does Active Parent depend on family income?

Benefits from the Active Parent program are available regardless of the family’s income and are not subject to administrative and bailiff enforcement. No advance payment for personal income tax, social security contributions or health insurance contributions is collected from benefits.

Who is Active Parent for?

Benefits from the Active Parent program are available to people residing in Poland:

Polish citizens,
EU/EFTA and UK citizens
other foreigners, provided they meet the condition of legal stay in Poland on the basis of a residence card with access to the labor market or on the basis of another document confirming legal stay and access to the labor market.

What about Ukrainian citizens?

Active parents at work and active at home benefits are not available to citizens of Ukraine who came to Poland in connection with hostilities.

The active nursery benefit is available to citizens of Ukraine who came to Poland in connection with hostilities, if they stayed legally in Poland as persons with the “UKR” status for a continuous period of at least 365 days. This also applies to the child of a Ukrainian citizen who has the “UKR” status.

Professional activity – what is it?

The money is intended to make it easier for parents of small children to return to work (this is in the first two variants of the program, because Actively at Home does not require returning to work). What does the legislator understand by professional activity? This means that both parents must work on the basis of an employment contract, mandate contract, run a business or be farmers. It is also necessary to be subject to retirement and disability insurance from the base, the amount of which is not less than 100%. minimum wage or:

50 percent – when the other parent is insured at least to the same extent,
30 percent – when the other parent is insured at least to the same extent and in the case of running a non-agricultural business, taking advantage of reliefs and preferences in paying ZUS contributions (start-up relief, small ZUS Plus, etc.).
continuous coverage of social insurance in KRUS for at least one year.

Therefore, parents will not benefit from the benefit if the only source of income for one of them (or both) is a contract for specific work.

Actively in the nursery: how will the money be paid?

Actively in the nursery will replace the subsidy for the stay in the nursery, which is valid from April 1, 2022. Today, such subsidy amounts to a maximum of PLN 400 per month per child, but no more than the amount the parent paid for the child’s stay in a nursery, children’s club or day care provider. Now it will cover tuition fees of up to PLN 1,500 (but no more than the actual amount).

The money will be transferred directly to the account of the institution running the nursery or club – it is not possible for parents to collect it.

The money will not be paid if a child is enrolled in an institution where the fee is higher than PLN 2,200 – this reservation is intended to discourage the institution’s management from increasing prices.

Actively in nursery and the child’s age

There is no lower age limit for a child for whom a benefit covering the cost of stay in a facility may be granted. The condition is that you attend a nursery, a children’s club or a day care provider and confirm this in the register of nurseries or in the list of day care providers. However, an upper age threshold has been set: until the end of the school year in which the child turns 3, and if it is impossible or difficult to provide the child with preschool education – until the end of the school year in which the child turns 4.