Time to Start Moaning?
There will not be a retirement age referendum. Most Poles will work until they reach 67 years of age. The ruling coalition wants to allow earlier retirement, but for the price of a very low pension. The compromise between the Civil Platform (PO) and the Polish Peasant Party (PSL) ends the crisis in the coalition. The negotiations between PO and PSL activists about raising the retirement age lasted over one month. The aim of the compromise is that the retirement age for women and men be made equal and be gradually increased until it reaches 67 years. However, if one wants to, the would-be pensioner can retire earlier: women at 62 years old and men at 67 years old. This is the so-called ‘partial pension’. In order to receive it, one has to agree to one more condition, that it have the appropriate pension contributions. With regard to women this amounts to 35 years’ worth of contributions, and in the case of men 40 years’ worth. According to calculations made by Łukasz Wacławik, a specialist in social insurance, a man who earns PLN 3,500 will receive PLN 841 monthly on a partial pension, or PLN 1,578 if they work for another two years. If he does not take a partial pension and works until he is 67 years old, he will receive almost PLN 200 more, that is, in total, PLN 1,766. Moreover, a woman who earns PLN 3,500 monthly will receive PLN 736 partial pension. After five years, when she switches to a normal pension, she will receive PLN 1,245. If she works until 67 years of age, she will receive PLN 1,682. The agreement made between PO and PSL resulted in their voting against the rejection of a motion by the Solidarity Trade Union calling for a referendum in regard to the raising of the retirement age. Over a few thousand unionists went to the debate in Warsaw.
Gazeta Wyborcza
