Thousands of decisions on reduced pensions. ZUS convinces that it is no big deal
In the years 2016-2022, the Social Insurance Institution issued over 17 thousand incorrect decisions regarding the payment of pension and disability benefits. As the representatives of the Institution claim, this is a small number – it constitutes only 0.12 percent of all decisions issued. This is poor consolation for pensioners who had to file appeals.
Last year, the Social Insurance Institution had to pay compensation in 4,706 cases. The reason was errors in calculating the amount of pension and disability benefits. This is reported by the money.pl service.
Wrong decisions of ZUS
The case was commented on by ZUS spokesman Paweł Żebrowski – Compensation was paid only in 4,706 cases, which constitutes 0.12 percent of all decisions issued, including as a result of changes in decisions resulting from court judgments, which could have been caused by a different interpretation of the regulations or the assessment of evidence – said Żebrowski.
In total, in the years 2016-2022, the pension authority issued over 17 thousand erroneous decisions. Compensation was paid in about 16 thousand cases.
Anyone who believes that ZUS has made a wrong decision in their case can appeal it. However, there is a limited time to do so: only one month from the date of receipt of the decision. ZUS has just finished sending out this year’s letters with decisions on the amount of the March indexation, so it is worth taking a close look at them. (it took place in March this year).
If ZUS considers that the appeal submitted is justified, the Institution will change its decision within 30 days of receiving the appeal. Otherwise, the person dissatisfied with the decision will have the option of taking the case to court.
The highest pensions in Poland
The highest pension in Poland is paid to a pensioner from Silesia. After the last indexation, the benefit is PLN 48,673.53. The recipe for a high pension? Long years of work. The man began receiving the benefit 20 years after reaching retirement age. He worked for 62 years and 5 months. During that time, he never once took sick leave.
On the women’s side, the record holder is a woman from Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship. She worked for a slightly shorter period, for 61 years, and decided to end her professional career at the age of 81.
Their benefits are enviable, but in the mechanism in force since the pension reform in 1999, this is the only scenario that guarantees a high pension. Contributions must be paid for years – the benefits of people who worked under civil contracts for the first 20 years and only started paying full contributions around the age of 45 will be disproportionately lower than the pensions of people who paid even relatively small contributions, but regularly.
