The management of the MON with representatives of another ministries dealt with the case of professional soldiers who began service before the pension improvement and who, despite the improvement of a civilian pension, do not receive specified a benefit. The government is examining the option of simultaneous retirement from the uniform and universal strategy by soldiers who joined the service before 1999.
In 1990, Lubuski's resident retired after 20 years of service in the military, and then worked for 31 years as a school teacher and paid retirement insurance contributions. In 2016, he asked ZUS to apply for a pension for the period 1990-2016. He received a decision informing him that he had only 1 pension.
This is an example given by Mrs Elżbieta Polak (Citizen's Coalition) who made an interpelling to national defence ministers and family, work and social policy on changes in the pension system. It concerns military pensionerswho have taken up employment after their retirement but cannot collect 2 pensions.
"This situation puts many people in financial difficulties, especially in the Lubuskie Voivodeship, where many military units are located", says the Polish MP in the interview. She besides recalled that in April 2023 there was a draft amendment of the Social Insurance Fund Pensions Act (FUS). He assumed that uniforms who, after moving to retirement provision, continued to work in civilians and pay contributions would be entitled to 2 benefits – from the uniform strategy and the universal system.
In this context, Mrs Polak asked at what phase the bill's draft amendment is and whether the ministries provided for changes in the rules on pensions from the FUS to the degree that uniform pensions can be collected simultaneously and from the universal pension system.
Independent responses to the parliamentary proceeding were given by Sebastian Gajewski, Undersecretary of State in the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy (MRPiPS) and Paweł Bejda, Deputy Minister of Defence. Gajewski explained that 2 basic groups are distinguished among uniformed service officers and professional soldiers who usage pension and pension supplies.
In the first there are erstwhile professional soldiers who The service began after 1 January 1999, whereas in the second there are uniforms who joined the service before 2 January 1999, that is before the pension reform. The first group has the anticipation to collect pensions in both the uniform and the general system, as the basis for the uniform pension dimension does not include alleged civilian work.
This is not the case for professional soldiers who began their service before the pension reform. They may, in principle, collect 1 benefit, where periods of civilian service are to be taken into account in determining the amount of the uniform pension only up to the maximum base of its size and according to differentiated indicators.
As the Under-Secretary of State at the MRPiPS notes, representatives of this group who, after having acquired the right to a uniform pension, have taken up professional activity (and pay contributions to the FUS), feel disadvantaged due to the fact that any of them, although acquiring the right to a universal pension, do not receive that benefit. The payment of a civilian pension is suspended due to the fact that the amount of that benefit is lower than the uniform pension.
The draft amendment of the Pensions and Pensions Act presented in April 2023 was to change this in favour of uniforms who started service before 2 January 1999, but it was lost erstwhile the 9th word of the Sejm ended (2019–2023). "Any complex draft laws that have not been passed during a given parliamentary word are treated as yet resolved in the sense of failure to make it (closed)", Deputy Minister Bejda wrote in consequence to the interpelling.
However, this does not mean that the issue of civilian pensions for erstwhile military workers will not be resolved. "The representatives of the Ministry of Interior and Administration and the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy have taken up cooperation and held working meetings on the possible anticipation of simultaneously collecting pensions from the pension strategy of uniform services and the universal pension system", said the Deputy Head of the MON.
Meetings were held in 2025. After them, the ministries sent for further analysis a variant of the amendment of the regulation concerning the confluence of retirement from the strategy of provision of uniform services and the universal pension strategy concerning soldiers called for service before 2 January 1999. As indicated in consequence to the interpelling, the main body carrying out the work in this area is the MRPiPS. It informs about their course and the effects of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister.
