Staying at home with a child pays off. ZUS includes them in the pension

Keeping a job is different in Poland. Employers do not jump for joy when they hear about maternity or parental leave – someone has to fulfill the mother’s duties anyway. The risk of losing work must also be taken into account when taking a break from work.

But for ZUS, child care matters. Both leaves have a positive impact on women’s pensions – they are included in the insurance period and increase the pension capital. Parents of younger age groups do not have to do anything in this matter, but older parents are in a completely different situation.

Holidays only in paper files. It doesn’t matter that the plant no longer exists

The regulations protect the pension capital of people who give up work to care for children. Depending on the situation, holidays provided for by law are treated by ZUS as contributory or non-contributory periods, but this has been happening recently. The moment of censorship is the pension referendum introduced in the late 1990s.

Anyone who raised children before 1999 must now take care of their own interests. Why? At that time, ZUS did not have information about the individual situation of each insured Pole. Information about parental or maternity leave was recorded only in paper files of workplaces and did not reach the insurer.

Anyone in such a situation should submit an application to ZUS to determine or recalculate the initial capital. The form must be accompanied by:

• shortened birth certificates of children

• a certificate from the employer confirming the exact periods of parental leave or unpaid leave for care purposes.

If the workplace no longer exists, it doesn’t matter! The proof for ZUS may be entries in the original insurance card (the so-called green book) or detailed employment certificates, where the leave periods are marked.

More to your pension for staying at home. There are contributory and non-contributory periods

According to infor.pl, for retirement purposes it is crucial to precisely distinguish the status of time spent with the child. Maternity, parental and paternity leave counts towards the contribution period. Full pension and disability insurance contributions are deducted from the maternity benefit received by the parent.

Parental leave is a non-contributory period, but in this case ZUS applies an extremely favorable conversion rate for mothers of 1.3%. assessment base for each year – exactly the same as for the contribution periods.

The regulations allow a maximum of 3 years (36 months) of parental leave for one child to be included in the retirement period. The total amount of parental leave for all children cannot exceed 6 years (72 months). The exception is a situation when the child required special care due to his or her health condition, confirmed by a disability certificate. The parent is then entitled to an additional 3 years for a specific child.

Note – a man who was on paternity, parental or parental leave before 1999 has exactly the same rights to increase his pension as a woman.