1 SocialInsurance Institution (ZUS)

2 Social insurance Their main objective is to provide financial security for the elderly, incapable of work persons, victims of accidents and diseases. Payments from the social insurance may be of short-term or long-term character or they may have the form of annuities.

3 Social insurance in Europe Emergence of social insurance was necessitated by rapid industrialisation of Europe. Germany was the first State to introduce social insurance in the end of the 19th century. Otto von Bismarck, the Chancellor of the Second Reich, was an initiator of these changes.

4 Polish social insurance system – 28 March 1933 – the social insurance Act, which consolidated the social insurance system in the country 24 October 1934 – Regulation of Ignacy Mościcki, the President of the Republic of Poland, which established the Social Insurance Institution

5 ZUS handles:  the award and payment of: pensions sickness, maternity, care allowances and funeral grants, pre-retirement benefits, supplements for war veterans;  - collection and accumulation of contributions to social insurance, health insurance, the Labour Fund and the Fund of Guaranteed Employee Benefits,  collection of health insurance contributionsand their transfer to the National Health Fund;  keeping individual accounts of persons insured and accounts of contribution payers (entrepreneurs),

6 PAYERS PERSONS INSURED BENEFICIARIES ca 15 million insured persons (including employees, mandatories), for whom ZUS keeps accounts, transfers contributions (to OFE/NFZ), issues decisions on incapacity for work (i.e. for the disability pension purposes) ca 2.3 million contribution payers (inter alia employers, principals) accounting for contributions for themselves and for their employees 7.7 million beneficiaries (e.g. pensioners), for whom ZUS establishes pension entitlements, calculates benefit amount, re-assesses and pays pensions Participants of the universal social insurance system:

7 The social insurance contributions flow into a special fund managed by ZUS, called the Social Insurance Fund (Fundusz Ubezpieczeń Społecznych, FUS). Benefits are paid from its resources. It means that NOTE: ZUS ≠ FUS ZUS manages the SOCIAL INSURANCE FUND (FUS)

8 The amount of the social insurance contributions and the rules for benefits calculation are laid down in legal acts passed by the parliament

9 Legal basis:

10 EXPENDITURE in 2014 State Budget PLN billion FUS resources PLN 190 billion is at the level of 50% of the State budget expenditure Expenditure of the Social Insurance Fund

11 ZUS does not create the law, does not establish rules governing the social insurance system, including the old-age pension system ZUS does not have any influence on the level of granted benefits ZUS is obliged to correctly calculate and pay these benefits ZUS does not have any influence on the level of social insurance contributions: ZUS is obliged to collect and record contributions but What does it mean?