Almost 135 thousand refuse widow’s pension. Mostly for this reason

Since the beginning of 2025, the so-called widow’s pension. It is a combination of two benefits: your own (e.g. old-age pension or disability pension) and a survivor’s pension after your deceased spouse. We are talking here about the so-called overlap of benefits.

Benefit payments started in July last year. The latest data from the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) show that almost one million seniors are currently receiving widow’s pension.

To obtain the benefit you must meet the following conditions:

• the woman is at least 60 years old and the man is at least 65 years old,

• marital partnership existed until the date of the spouse’s death,

• the person applying for widow’s pension has not remarried,

• the right to a survivor’s pension arose no earlier than when a woman turned 55 or a man turned 60.

Another condition is that the sum of both benefits cannot exceed three times the minimum pension. Currently, it is PLN 5,935.48 gross.

Almost 135 thousand refuse widow’s pension. Mostly for this reason

According to Dziennik Gazeta Prawna, by June this year ZUS issued PLN 134.9 thousand. negative decisions regarding the right to widow’s pension. As Sebastian Gajewski, Deputy Minister of Family, Labor and Social Policy, revealed in response to one of the parliamentary interpellations, the most common reason for refusal was exceeding the above-mentioned limit (for this reason, approximately 53,000 refusal decisions were issued). A common reason for such a decision was also the acquisition of rights to a survivor’s pension after a deceased spouse earlier than five years before reaching the standard retirement age (almost 30,000 decisions).

As mentioned, widow’s pension is a combination of two benefits. People who have lost their spouse can receive one benefit in full and the other at 15%. At the beginning of 2027, there will be a change in this respect. In the case of the second benefit, 25% will be paid, which will mean higher payments.