At the beginning of August, the minister Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz stated in the program “Onet Morning”that “it does not rule out that it will be necessary to raise the retirement age in the future.” Less than a month later, she had already withdrawn from it.speaking on air Radio Zetthat “there is absolutely no possibility of raising the retirement age in this term.”
5 more years of work, more “thirteenths”
However, from the beginning, Pełczyńska-Nałęcz claimed that an “economic incentive” for seniors was extremely important, so that “it would pay off for them to work longer”. – If working longer pays off for them, seniors will want to work – she assessed. Now, in an interview with “A fact” she adds that “it has to be like this, and today it is not always the case, that if someone works longer, they get a bigger pension”. In her opinion, it currently happens that “when a person reaches retirement age and goes on benefits, they are very often entitled to a minimum pension”. – If such a person works another 5 years, they are still entitled to a minimum pension and in the meantime they lose five thirteenth pensions – adds the minister. Therefore, in her opinion, it is worth considering a proposal that would encourage seniors to work longer. She emphasizes that this idea of Poland 2050 is not yet being processed by the government. In her opinion, the period of longer work should be compensated by the phrase “thirteenth pension”. – So if a person does not retire and works for example 5 years longer, they get 5 outstanding “thirteenth pensions” – says the minister.
Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz: We have a demographic problem
The Minister of Funds also emphasizes that Poland has a big demographic problem. She estimates that “if we turn a blind eye to this problem, we will hit a wall at some point”. – 15 years ago, almost 4 people worked for every retiree, now almost 3 people, and in the middle of the century it will be less than 2 people – she calculates. According to data from the Central Statistical Office, at the end of last year, 37 million 367 thousand people lived in Poland. This is 130 thousand less than in 2022. “If we take 2010 as a point of comparison, since then the number of people of working age (18-59/64) has fallen by over 2.8 million, pre-working age (0-17 years) by almost 400 thousand, while the number of people of post-working age (60/65 years +) has increased by over 2.3 million” – Mikołaj Fidziński wrote on Next.gazeta.pl.