Dziemianowicz-Bąk: If the Sejm adopts the widow's pension bill, we estimate a 6-month implementation period

07/02/2024

15:45

Dziemianowicz-Bąk:

If the Sejm adopts the widow's pension bill, we estimate a 6-month implementation period

Michał Lubowicki

- The death of a spouse, an elderly person, in addition to emotional pain, is also a blow to the household budget, to the wallet of a senior who has lost their spouse and is left alone with all the household expenses. […] The state can and should protect elderly people from this financial blow - said Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk in the Sejm. - Such protection and its strengthening, improvement, are proposed by the initiators of the civic bill on the so-called widow's pension. A project prepared jointly by OPZZ and Lewica, signed by over 200,000 people. A project that enjoys very broad social support today, as over 70% of Polish women and men support the possibility of combining their benefit with the benefit of a deceased spouse - she continued. - After the death of a spouse, a widow or widower would be able to receive 50% of the deceased spouse's pension, without losing the right to their own pension, or decide to receive 100% of the survivor's pension from the deceased spouse and keep half of their own pension - she explained. - As the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy, we are very pleased that the Sejm has today begun the procedure for the civic bill on the widow's pension. We declare as a ministry our full readiness for further work on this project in committee, and if it is adopted by the Sejm, we assume the technical and financial possibility of implementing it after approximately 6 months - announced the Minister of Family, Labour and Social Policy.

Michał Lubowicki