As we have already informedOn August 9, Andrzej Duda signed a law introducing a widow's pension, which will come into effect next year. The benefit is to consist of combining widows' and widowers' pensions with an incomplete family pension after the deceased spouse. From July 1, 2025 to December 31, 2026, one benefit will be available in full, and the other in the amount of 15%. Then, from January 1, 2027, it will increase to 25%. Let us also recall that the amount of the benefit cannot exceed three times the minimum pension applicable in a given period. The right to a widow's pension will be granted to people who have reached retirement age – in the case of women, 60 years of age, and men, 65 years of age, and who remain in joint property until the date of death of the spouse and acquire the right to a family pension – if the death occurred no earlier than 5 years before the deceased reached retirement age.
Seniors are not happy with widow's pension. Content of petition to the president revealed
Although the President of the Republic of Poland has already signed the act, it turned out that some seniors wanted to influence his decision earlier. They considered the widow's pension to be unfair and would harm single people. For this reason, they sent a collective petition to Andrzej Duda asking for the regulations to be referred to the Constitutional Tribunal.
“The widow's pension in its previous form in many cases provided a benefit higher than half of the spouses' summed benefits. In its currently planned form, it will constitute a disproportionate income in relation to the contributions collected independently,” it was emphasized in the letter published by “Fact“.
It was further added that “the assumption that with similar funds paid in, one person, solely due to their marital status, will be provided with means of subsistence that exceed normal subsistence, while another will fall into poverty due to their marital status, is nothing more than discrimination”.
Attention was also paid to the source of financing for widow's pension.
The petition's authors also mentioned that the widow's pension will be paid from the pension fund, and contributions to it are allocated by working people. “This is a type of insurance in the event of inability to work or lack of other means of support due to reasons beyond one's control. And while inability to work due to disability is a completely random event, becoming a widower is to some extent part of marriage. Every person in a marriage knows that they will be a widow or widower, or will leave a single spouse. Widowhood is not a random event! It is therefore not fair that long-term single people are obliged to participate in the pension fund on the same terms as married couples,” wrote the seniors before the president signed the act.