Poland has begun paying benefits to same-sex couples who married abroad

Sep 22, 2026 | Law, Politics, Society

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Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Poland has begun paying state benefits to same-sex couples who married abroad and have had their wedding certificates transcribed into the Polish registry, the minister for family, labour and social policy, Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk, has confirmed.

Poland was recently ordered to start recognising such marriages by the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU). Dziemianowicz-Bąk says there are indications that Polish same-sex couples are now travelling abroad to marry so as to gain rights in Poland, where domestic law still does not allow them to form recognised unions.

In November 2025, the CJEU ruled that Poland must recognise same-sex marriages conducted in other EU member states, finding that failing to do so infringes the freedom to move and reside within the EU as well as the right to respect for private and family life.

In light of that ruling, in March this year, Poland’s own Supreme Administrative Court (NSA) ordered Warsaw’s registry office to recognise a marriage conducted by two Polish men in Germany by transcribing it into the Polish civil registry.

In May, the Polish government issued a regulation allowing such transcriptions of foreign same-sex marriages to take place nationwide. It went into force in August. However, even before then, some cities had begun transcribing marriage certificates, beginning with Warsaw and Wrocław in May.

At the end of August, digital affairs minister Krzysztof Gawkowski reported that 84 same-sex couples had already transcribed their foreign marriages under the government’s new regulation.

While foreign same-sex marriages can now be entered into Poland’s civil registry, questions have remained as to what that will mean in practice for such couples, especially as domestic law does not recognise same-sex relationships.

However, speaking to news service Wirtualna Polska on Friday, Dziemianowicz-Bąk confirmed that “the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) is already paying the first care allowances to same-sex couples”.

Such allowances are paid to someone who is required to provide care for a spouse. The level of the allowance is set at 80% of the recipient’s average salary from the last 12 months, and it is available for up to 14 days per calendar year.

Dziemianowicz-Bąk welcomed the fact that “ZUS, one of the most important institutions, knows and understands that love is love, marriage is marriage, and these rights will be respected”.

She is from The Left (Lewica), a junior partner in Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s ruling coalition and the most enthusiastic supporter of LGBT+ rights.

The minister confirmed that her colleague from The Left, Katarzyna Kotula, the government’s plenipotentiary for equality, is “in dialogue with the finance ministry and National Revenue Administration (KAS)” to ensure that same-sex couples who married abroad receive the tax benefits available to other married couples.

 

Dziemianowicz-Bąk also argued that the right-wing opposition and conservative President Karol Nawrocki are unintentionally encouraging Polish same-sex couples to marry by preventing the government from introducing a domestic law on recognising same-sex relationships.

In July, Nawrocki vetoed a government bill that would have allowed unmarried partners, including same-sex couples, to obtain certain rights available to married couples, including relating to taxation, property, and access to medical information.

However, it would not have allowed same-sex couples to marry or even form civil partnerships. Instead, they would have signed a contract before a notary, formalising their relationship. Yet this step was still too far for Nawrocki, who said that it threatened the institution of marriage, which is enshrined in the constitution.

Last week, the ruling coalition attempted to overrule the president’s veto in parliament, which requires the support of a three-fifths majority. However, the vote fell short of that figure after the right-wing opposition voted to uphold the veto.

Dziemianowicz-Bąk said that the government’s opponents were “essentially encouraging marriage equality” because they left same-sex couples with only one option to have their relationships recognised: getting married abroad and then having the certificate transcribed into the Polish registry.

She told Wirtualna Polska that “we’ve heard indications” that this is precisely what such couples are now doing.

However, opposition figures have argued that recognition of same-sex marriages violates Poland’s constitution, article 18 of which says: “Marriage, being a union of a man and a woman, as well as the family, motherhood and parenthood, shall be placed under the protection and care of the Republic of Poland.”

In July, the Constitutional Tribunal (TK), which has a majority of judges appointed by the former national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) government, ruled that the government’s regulation allowing the transcription of foreign same-sex marriages is unconstitutional.

But the government regards the TK as illegitimate since it contains judges unlawfully appointed under PiS. It therefore ignores the tribunal’s rulings.

In response to Dziemianowicz-Bąk’s announcement that ZUS has begun paying benefits to same-sex couples, Krzysztof Bosak, one of the leaders of the far-right Confederation (Konfederacja) group, said that it showed how “the left is ready to trample every law, including the constitution, just to get their way”.

“What drives them and what they believe in is ideology, and what guides them is the instinct for domination,” added Bosak, who is also a deputy speaker of the Sejm, the more powerful lower house of parliament.


Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

Main image credit: RCB/Wikimedia Commons (under CC BY 2.0)

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