“Active parents at work” without work. Then what happens to this addition?

Combining family life with professional life is not easy, but it is standard today. However, someone has to take care of the children during this time. For this purpose, the government program “Active Parent” was created, which offers young parents three different options:

• an additional payment of PLN 1,500 for the nursery (Actively in the nursery),

• PLN 500 per month for each child from 12 to 35 months of age for parents who prefer to stay at home with their child (Actively at home),

• PLN 1,500 per month for two years to employ a caregiver or babysitter, including grandmother and grandfather (Active parents at work).

What happens if at least one of the parents using the third path loses their job or starts earning less? It’s not an easy situation, but you can benefit from it twice.

The most popular path from “Active Parent”. Minimal professional activity

Official data from the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) show that since the “grandmother’s program” was launched, parents of small children most often choose the “Actively in the nursery” path – 442,000 applications. Secondly, they decide to stay at home – in this case, ZUS received 387.8 thousand applications.

Young parents are slightly less willing to take advantage of the opportunity to employ a caregiver, i.e. the “Active parents at work” path, although the number of applications is basically comparable to the other options – 371.9 thousand.

In order for ZUS to pay this third benefit, both caregivers must meet the minimum professional activity requirement. What does this mean in practice?

Minimum contributions to ZUS. Two chances in two years

Just any job is not enough to receive benefits. What counts is the type of professional activity thanks to which ZUS receives contributions, at least in the minimum amount: full-time employment, work under a mandate contract, home work, or a doctoral scholarship, sports scholarship or scholarship for students of the National School of Public Administration. The regulations also allow people voluntarily insured in KRUS and working in uniformed services, as well as judges and prosecutors.

The benefit is payable if both parents or guardians achieve income whose contribution assessment basis is at least 100%. minimum wage. This means that the basis from which each of these people’s contributions are paid cannot be lower than 50%. minimum wage or 30 percent minimum wage for work on preferential terms.

If income decreases or one of the parents loses their job, the benefit is payable only until the end of the month following the month in which the condition is no longer met. ZUS explains that this rule can only be used twice within two years.