Old-age pensions

The reform of the old-age pension scheme came into force on 1 January 1999, pursuant to the Act of 13 October 1998 on the social insurance system.

From this moment two old-age pension schemes have been jointly in operation in Poland:
1) old-age pension scheme operating under the earlier rules – for persons born before 1 January 1949,
2) old-age pension scheme operating under the new rules – for persons born after 31 December 1948.

Persons born after 31 December 1948 but before 1 January 1969 had an option to:

• remain in the pre-1999 pension scheme, i.e. pay-as-you-go scheme, where the contributions of economically active persons were allocated to pension payments and the value of these contributions was recorded in individual accounts with the Social Insurance Institution,
• join the new pension scheme, combining the pay-as-you-go and funded model, where contributions are accumulated both in FUS and in the Open Pension Fund.

The normal retirement age is:

• for women – 60 years,
• for men – 65 years.

With the new rules on acquiring the right to the old-age pension the right to receive a pension earlier than at the normal retirement age has been significantly reduced. This has increased the effective retirement age for both women and men. 

In 2019, the effective average retirement age for men was 64.4 years and for women – 60.7 years.