From 1 February, some Ukrainian refugees in Poland will lose their benefits

On 1 February, Poland will change the procedure for paying child allowances to Ukrainian refugees. Some families will no longer receive 800 zloty (about 9.5 thousand hryvnyas) per child. These changes are stipulated by the law signed last year, writes the Rzeczpospolita edition.

In order to receive the benefit, it is now necessary to submit a new application, which will be checked by the ZUS (Social Insurance Institution). In most cases, no additional documents will be required.

The allowance is paid for each child, but the parents must be working. Professional activities include:

• working under a labour or assignment contract,

• running a business,

• receiving sports or doctoral scholarships,

• receiving unemployment benefit or participating in scholarship training.

Important: for some categories of professional activity, the base for calculating pension and insurance contributions must be at least 50 per cent of the minimum wage, for others 30 per cent. Parents of children with disabilities and those applying for a Polish citizen child are exempt from this requirement.

Assistance will be paid only if the child studies and lives in Poland and the applicant is in Poland. In individual cases, e.g. in case of postponement of compulsory education, a relevant certificate will be required.

ZUS may suspend the payment of 800+ if there are doubts about the residence in Poland, the parents' professional activity or the child's attendance of compulsory education. We will check the fulfilment of the conditions on a monthly basis," said Ewa Krysiewicz, Deputy Director of the Family Benefits Department of ZUS.

There are about 950 thousand persons with temporary protection in Poland, mostly Ukrainians.