ZUS’s tasks

The Social Insurance Institution:

• determines entitlements to the following types of pensions and social security benefits:
  • old-age pensions,
  • disability pensions,
  • survivors’ pensions, including their payment in cases of benefit overlap under the rules governing the so-called widow’s pensions
  • child-support benefit,
  • ‘Good Start’ benefit,
  • benefits from the ‘Active Parent’ programme,
  • teachers’ compensatory benefit,
  • supporting benefit,
  • sickness allowances,
  • maternity allowances,
  • care allowances,
  • compensatory allowances,
  • rehabilitation benefits,
  • funeral grants;
• pays out the benefits for which it has determined entitlements;
• issues decisions required to determine entitlements to social insurance benefits, other benefits payable by ZUS and for non-insurance purposes
• controls the correctness of certifying temporary incapacity for work;
• authorises doctors to issue medical certificates of temporary incapacity for work, and revokes such authorisations if there is evidence of irregularities;
• performs disability pension prevention tasks, including medical rehabilitation and accident prevention;
• establishes the social insurance obligation, assesses and collects social insurance contributions;
• credits part of the old-age pension contribution to the insured person’s account and the remaining part to a sub-account, unless the insured person has made a declaration to transfer part of the contribution to an Open Pension Fund (otwarty fundusz emerytalny, OFE), in which case ZUS divides the part allocated to the sub-account and sends the statutory amount to the appropriate fund;
• distributes and pays out to eligible persons the funds held in the sub-accounts of insured persons;
• collects and settles the health insurance contribution and transfers it to the National Health Fund (Narodowy Fundusz Zdrowia, NFZ);
• collects the contribution to the Labour Fund (Fundusz Pracy, FP) and the Solidarity Fund (Fundusz Solidarnościowy, FS) and transfers it to the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy;
• collects the contribution for the Fund of Guaranteed Employee Benefits (Fundusz Gwarantowanych Świadczeń Pracowniczych, FGŚP);
• collects and settles the contribution to the Bridging Pensions’ Fund (Fundusz Emerytur Pomostowych, FEP);
• keeps accounts of contribution payers and credits contributions to the insured persons’ individual accounts;
• checks the payment of compulsory contributions by payers and the proper fulfilment of their tasks under the Act (e.g., payment of various allowances), and enforces dues in respect of social insurance and health insurance contributions;
• keeps the insured person’ individual accounts with sub-accounts and the Insured Persons’ Central Register;
• keeps the Central Register of Open Pension Funds’ Members;
• keeps the contribution payers’ records and the Contribution Payers’ Central Register;
• administers the financial resources of the Social Insurance Fund and the Maintenance Fund;
• manages the Demographic Reserve Fund (Fundusz Rezerwy Demograficznej, FRD);
• on behalf of pensioners, transfers personal income tax to tax offices and health insurance contributions to the National Health Fund;
• grants and pays out social pensions;
• grants and pays out pre-retirement benefits;disseminates knowledge about social insurance in Poland, implements its own educational initiatives addressed to schoolchildren and partnership projects for students;
• cooperates with government administration bodies, foreign insurance institutions and international organisations;
• acts as the competent institution and the liaison body for the implementation of international conventions and agreements in the field of social insurance, and handles benefits provided in accordance with these conventions and agreements;
• acts as the competent institution and the liaison body in the EU coordination of social security systems in the area covered by ZUS competence (universal insurance)

The range of tasks performed by the Social Insurance Institution makes it one of the largest public institutions in Poland. On the one hand, ZUS performs the functions of a financial institution, e.g., collects contributions, pays out benefits, and transfers taxes on behalf of pensioners. On the other hand, it strives to be an institution that gives its customers – insured persons, beneficiaries and contribution payers – a sense of security, and provides efficient, friendly and reliable services, using modern electronic services, such as:

• system for customers – Electronic Services Platform (Platforma Usług Elektronicznych, (PUE)/eZUS),
• mobile applications: mZUS, mZUS for Doctors,
• e-appointments in ZUS.