Government administration sections

The Act of 4 September 1997 on governmental administration sections (Journal of Laws 2019, item 945, as amended) defines the tasks and powers of the competent ministers, inter alia in the field of social security.

The social security section falls under the competence of the minister in charge of social security issues and covers:

• social insurance and social provision,
• old-age pension funds,
• social assistance and benefits for individuals and households in a difficult financial and social situation,
• pathology prevention,
• government programmes in the field of social assistance, in particular for individuals and households in a difficult financial and social situation as well as for groups at risk of social exclusion,
• social benefits, employment, social and vocational rehabilitation of the disabled,
• combatants and persecuted persons,
• the coordination of social security systems, with the exception of health benefits in kind,
• public benefit activity, including the supervision of such activity by public benefit organisations, excluding the supervision of rescue and civil protection activities.

In the publication “Social Security in Poland” we pay most of our attention to social insurance and benefits paid by the Social Insurance Institution.

Moreover, in the chapter on social assistance we describe cash benefits and other forms of social assistance.

The section rural development is under the jurisdiction of the minister in charge of rural development. This section includes inter alia social insurance for farmers. In this area the minister in charge of rural development cooperates with the minister in charge of social security. In our study we describe the functioning of the social insurance system for farmers.

The section health covers, among others: medical care and public health issues, including the organisation of health care, supervision of medicinal products and medical devices, treatment in health resorts and coordination of the social security systems in the field of health benefits in kind. This section falls under the competence of the minister in charge of health. In the chapter Public health insurance we describe some of these issues.

The section family covers inter alia issues of health care and of support for families in difficult financial and social situation, in particular families with children. It is coordinated by the minister in charge of family issues. In the chapter on material support for families we describe inter alia family benefits.

Problems on employment and countering unemployment are to be found in the section work, these being coordinated by the minister in charge of labour issues.

In our study we describe unemployment benefits.

The minister in charge of the interior supervises the system of pension provision for officers of the Police, the Internal Security Agency, the Foreign Intelligence Agency, the Military Counterintelligence Service, the Military Intelligence Service, the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau, the Border Guard, the Government Protection Bureau, the State Fire Service, the Customs and Fiscal Service and the Prison Service.

The system of pension provision for professional soldiers is under the authority of the minister in charge of national defence.

The system of social provision for judges is under the authority of the minister in charge of justice, and the system of social provision for prosecutors is under the authority of the Prosecutor General.