ZUS’s tasks

The Social Insurance Institution:

• establishes entitlement to:
  • old-age pensions,
  • disability pensions,
  • survivors’ pensions,
  • sickness allowances,
  • maternity allowances,
  • care allowances,
  • compensatory allowances,
  • rehabilitation allowances,
  • funeral grants;
• pays benefits to which it has established entitlements;
• issues decisions for the purposes of establishing the entitlement to social insurance benefits, other benefits payable by ZUS and for non-insurance purposes;
• checks the correctness of certification for temporary incapacity for work;
• authorises doctors to issue medical certificates of temporary incapacity for work and withdraws these authorisations in case of mistakes in issuing medical certificates;
• performs disability prevention tasks, including medical rehabilitation and accident prevention;
• establishes the social insurance obligation, assesses and collects social insurance contributions;
• keeps a part of the pension contribution on the insured person’s account and the remaining part on the sub-account, unless the insured person has submitted a declaration that a part of the contribution should be transferred to OFE; in such a case ZUS divides the part allocated to the sub-account and transfers the amount set by law to the relevant OFE;
• divides and pays to eligible persons the funds kept on sub-accounts of insured person;
• collects and accounts for the health insurance contribution and transfers it to the National Health Fund (NFZ);
• collects the contribution to the Labour Fund and transfers it to the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy;
• collects the contribution to the Fund of Guaranteed Employee Benefits;
• collects and accounts for the contribution to the Old-age Bridging Pensions Fund (Fundusz Emerytur Pomostowych, FEP);
• conducts the calculation of contributions held in contribution payer’s accounts and keeps contributions on insured persons’ individual accounts;
• controls contribution payers in discharge of their contribution payment duties and checks the correctness of exercising the tasks entrusted to payers by law (such as payment of various types of allowances), as well as vindicates liabilities in respect of social insurance and health insurance contributions;
• maintains the insured persons’ individual accounts and the sub-accounts under these accounts, as well as the Central Register of Insured Persons;
• maintains the Central Register of Open Pension Funds Members;
• maintains the contribution payers’ records and the Central Register of Contribution Payers;
• has at its disposal the financial resources of the Social Insurance Fund and the resources of the Maintenance Fund;
• manages the Demographic Reserve Fund (Fundusz Rezerwy Demograficznej, FRD);
• in the name of pensioners transfers personal income tax to Polish tax offices and submits health insurance contributions to the National Health Fund;
• awards and pays social pensions;
• awards and pays pre-retirement benefits;
• promotes knowledge about social insurance in Poland; carries out its own educational initiatives for school children and partnership projects for university students;
• cooperates with governmental administration bodies, foreign insurance institutions and international organisations;
• plays the role of a competent institution and a liaison body in the implementation of international conventions and agreements in the field of social insurance, and handles benefits payable in accordance with these conventions and agreements;
• plays the role of a competent institution and a liaison body in the field of EU coordination of social security systems in the area covered within ZUS competence (general social insurance).

Due to the range of exercised tasks, the Social Insurance Institution is one of the biggest public institutions in Poland. On the one hand, ZUS holds financial functions, such as e.g. contributions collection, benefits payment, tax payment on behalf of pensioners, and on the other hand it endeavours to be an institution that should provide its clients – persons insured, beneficiaries and contribution payers – with a sense of security connected with efficient, friendly and reliable services.