Poland’s parliament has almost unanimously supported a package of measures proposed by the government to provide financial support to help parents of young children return to work.
The legislation would offer parents a choice of one of three types of benefit for children aged between 12 and 35 months.
One of the options is entirely new and has been informally named “granny payments” (babciowe) by the government. It would provide 1,500 zloty (€446) a month to pay for care for the child of a working parent. The money can be used for a nanny but also for a grandparent to look after the child.
“We have granny payments,” tweeted Prime Minister Donald Tusk after the vote in parliament, signing his message as “grandad”. The 67-year-old has five grandchildren.
Mamy babciowe. Dziadek.
— Donald Tusk (@donaldtusk) May 15, 2024
The other two choices for parents both expand existing benefits. One increases the amount available to subsidise nursery fees for a child from 400 zloty per month to 1,500 zloty per month, therefore bringing it in line with the level of the “granny payments”.
The legislation would also introduce an upper limit on nursery fees to prevent institutions from raising prices to take advantage of the newly increased benefits.
For both “granny payments” and nursery payments, the amount paid to parents would rise to 1,900 zloty per month for a child with disabilities.
The final option is for parents who remain professionally inactive or whose child does not attend a care institution. They will continue to receive 500 zloty a month under a previous system known as “family care capital”, but this will be expanded to also be available for a parent’s first child.
Prime Minister @donaldtusk has pledged to expand a system of payments to parents of young children introduced under the previous PiS government.
He also says that previously promised childcare allowances to help mothers return to work are almost ready https://t.co/v8LJrE6uZr
— Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) April 4, 2024
An overwhelming majority of 421 MPs in the 460-seat Sejm, the more powerful lower house of parliament, voted in favour of the measures on Wednesday, including Law and Justice (PiS), the main opposition party.
The only 14 votes against the legislation came from the far-right Confederation (Konfederacja) party, which favours a more libertarian economic system in which the state provides fewer social benefits.
The bill now passes to the Senate, where it is likely to be approved. The upper house can suggest changes to the law or reject it, but in either case that can be overridden by the Sejm. Once passed by parliament, it would go to President Andrzej Duda for final approval.
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Daniel Tilles is editor-in-chief of Notes from Poland. He has written on Polish affairs for a wide range of publications, including Foreign Policy, POLITICO Europe, EUobserver and Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.
