ZUS confiscated pension contributions. The ministry responds
The website Wyborcza.biz publicized the problem of confiscation of pension contributions by ZUS. The Ministry of Labor initially did not intend to react, but eventually promised to deal with the matter. The Social Dialogue Council also announced its reaction.
Wyrcza.biz journalists described cases of confiscation of pension contributions by ZUS. In one person it was 350 thousand. PLN, another 100,000, and yet another payer lost PLN 30,000. All these people were employed full-time in their own companies.
Confiscation of ZUS contributions. The ministry responds
The confiscations took place after inspections, as a result of which it was concluded that working in our own company, we were not entitled to insurance. However, the problem is that contributions paid for many years are taken over by the state. A citizen can demand their return only for the last 5 years. Such rules were established by the Polish Order adopted by PiS in 2022.
On Wednesday, October 8, the Ministry of Labor stated that it did not intend to change the regulations and referred it to ZUS. “The Minister of Family, Labor and Social Policy does not act as an appeal or supervisory body towards ZUS in individual cases,” the ministry explained, mentioning judicial review.
However, on Thursday, October 9, a new announcement appeared. – At the Ministry, we will take a look at the provisions of the Act on the social security system regarding the rules for refunding unduly paid contributions and the limitation period for this request – announced Sebastian Gajewski, Deputy Minister of Family, Labor and Social Policy.
Council for Social Dialogue and confiscation of ZUS contributions
The Social Dialogue Council also got involved in the matter and on Monday, October 13, it wants to discuss the issue of confiscation of contributions and related regulations. This information was confirmed to the portal by Dr. Tomasz Lasocki from the Faculty of Administration and Social Sciences of the Warsaw University of Technology, an expert of the Federation of Polish Entrepreneurs.
Łukasz Kozłowski, an economist at the Federation of Polish Entrepreneurs and a member of the social insurance team of the Council for Social Dialogue, has an idea to solve the problem. – It should not be the case that ZUS can make adjustments to our pension accounts for 20 or 30 years back, and citizens can demand a refund of overpaid contributions only for the last 5 years – he pointed out.
– If it is to be fair, both sides should have the same rights. Therefore, the new regulations should assume that corrections by ZUS of citizens’ accounts and contributions could only apply to the last five years. And if during this time ZUS detects an overpayment, the citizen has the right to a full refund of his savings – he emphasized.
