Social Insurance Fund
13 March 2025
The Social Insurance Fund (Fundusz Ubezpieczeń Społecznych, FUS) is a special-purpose state fund. It was established on 1 January 1999 by virtue of the Act of 13 October 1998 on the social insurance system. The Fund is administered by the Social Insurance Institution.
The revenue of the Social Insurance Fund comes, inter alia, from:
- social insurance contributions which are not transferred by ZUS to Open Pension Funds (Otwarte Fundusze Emerytalne, OFE),
- funds compensating the Social Insurance Fund for contribution amounts transferred to Open Pension Funds,
- payments from the state budget and other institutions, intended for benefits that the Social Insurance Institution has been commissioned to pay, with the exception of benefits financed under other budgetary chapters and payments from foreign institutions,
- interest on FUS bank account,
- state budget allocations,
- resources of the Demographic Reserve Fund,
- payments from Open Pension Funds due to reaching by the insured person the age lower by 10 years than the retirement age.
Within the limits fixed by the Budgetary Law, the Social Insurance Fund may receive allocations and no-interest loans from the state budget. It is only entitled to use them to supplement the funds for the payment of state-guaranteed benefits. It receives them only when the revenue in the FUS bank account and the funds from the reserve fund do not ensure full and timely payment of benefits financed from FUS.
With the consent of the minister in charge of public finance FUS may also take out credits.
The following funds are included in FUS:
- old-age pension fund, intended to finance:
- old-age pensions – based on contributions credited to the insured person’s account in ZUS,
- funded pensions – based on contributions credited to the sub-account at ZUS,
- disability pension fund, which is intended to finance:
- disability pensions,
- training pensions,
- survivors’ pensions,
- supplementary allowances to survivors’ pensions for double orphans,
- nursing supplementary allowances,
- old-age pensions awarded by ZUS ex officio in place of disability pensions,
- funeral grants,
- disability pension prevention,
- benefits financed from the state budget, the payment of which was commissioned to the Social Insurance Institution,
- sickness fund, intended to finance:
- sickness allowances,
- maternity allowances,
- care allowances,
- compensatory allowances,
- rehabilitation benefits.
- accident fund, intended to finance:
- accident pensions,
- supplementary allowances to pensions,
- lump-sum compensations,
- sickness allowances in respect of incapacity for work due to accident at work or occupational disease,
- refunds of health services in the field of dentistry and prophylactic vaccinations,
- reimbursement of costs of medical examinations and products,
- subsidising such contribution payers’ activities, which are intended to help employees maintain their earning capacity throughout the period of professional activity,
- compensatory allowance,
- rehabilitation benefit,
- training pension,
- survivors' pension,
- accident prevention costs.
