Poles are increasingly less likely to withdraw funds from PPK before retirement? Surprising data

Employee Capital Plans (PPK) have been operating in Poland since 2019. The program was created to encourage employees to save for retirement. Participation in PPK is voluntary (you can resign at any time and sign up at any time). The employer is obliged to finance basic contributions to PPK in the amount of 1.5%. or 2.5 percent employee’s remuneration (applies to employment contracts and mandate contracts). The employee allocates 2% to PPK every month. your salary. In addition, the state provides a one-time welcome payment.

In the initial period, Polish employees approached PPK with caution, but recently interest in participating in the program has been growing. Recent data show that over 4.3 million people take advantage of the opportunity to save in this way.

Are PPK refunds rare?

The Polish Development Fund (PFR), which supervises PPK, announced on Thursday that in the last quarter of 2025, employees and employers paid PLN 2.73 billion into the program. In the first quarter of this year, this amount increased by almost 33%. – up to PLN 3.63 billion. At the same time, the value of refunds increased from PLN 752.8 million to PLN 833.9 million. As PFR notes, this means that the ratio of refunds to new payments has not increased, but decreased, as a result of which “it is difficult to reconcile with the thesis of a general outflow of funds from the program.”

– Since the launch of PPK, 56 percent people who have ever refunded funds from the program have done so only once – informs PFR

Let us remind you that a PPK participant can return funds from the program at any time. He then receives 100 percent. funds from own contributions, as well as 70 percent funds from the employer’s payments (the remaining 30 percent goes to his account at ZUS). The refund amount is reduced by the so-called Belka’s tax on profits and reimbursement of subsidies from the state.

The issue of refunds from PPK has recently been noticed by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF), indicating that it may negatively affect the amount of future benefits.

– Currently, there is a continuing tendency to withdraw funds accumulated by PPK participants as part of a refund, which may negatively affect the amount of future benefits after obtaining the right to withdraw funds after reaching the age of 60 – assessed by the Polish Financial Supervision Authority.

The Commission believes that the statutory review of the operation of PPK scheduled for this year (according to the act, the government reviews the rules and operation of the program at least once every four years) is a good opportunity to “make the necessary modifications to this program in order to increase its attractiveness and the number of PPK participants.”