67 –New Retirement Age Accepted by Lower House of Parliament
20May 30, 2012 by Aleksandra Łuczak
Amendment to the Act about retirement and pensions from Social Insurance Board provides gradual extension of retirement age up to 67 years, beginning from 1 January 2013. 268 deputies voted in favor of the Act, 185 were against and 2 abstained (refrained) from voting.
Gradual extension of retirement age
Amendment to the Act about retirement and pensions from Social Insurance Board provides gradual extension of retirement age up to 67 years, beginning from 1 January 2013. Every year the retirement age will increase by three months. It means that males will reach the assumed retirement age (67 years) in 2020, and women in 2040.
Partial retirement
According to the Act it will be possible to retire couple years earlier thanks to so called partial retirement. This will allow 62 years old women and 65 years old man to retire. However, it will be necessary to obtain appropriate insurance period, which is at least 35 years for women and 40 in case of man. The partial retirement will be 50% of the full amount retirement from Social Insurance Board.
For and Against
The president of Law and Justice party Jaroslaw Kaczynski said that if the amendment enters into force, his party will fight in the constitutional Court to repeal the Act. In his opinion the amendment leads to violation of the elementary right to life. The Polish Peasant Party is contented with the amendment. New regulations enable reaching agricultural retirement or pension for those farmers who conduct their homestead with their partner who is entitled to the retirement insurance.
This post has been translated into English by Aleksandra Cochór from Kozminski University.
You can view the Polish text here: http://emerytury.wieszjak.pl/podwyzszenie-wieku-emerytalnego/306376,67-lat-nowy-wiek-emerytalny-przyjety-przez-Sejm.html
Extended retirement age is under hot debate right now in Poland. We live longer, have less children so it seems obvious that we should work longer as well.
Have your say!
Category legislation, Poland, retirement | Tags: Employment Law
I think new retirement age is a good idea. People have to work longer due to decrease number of births. Arguments like “we will work till die” is stupid. People who say that think that they will die in their 67 but the same people can easily enjoy they retirement from 65. What only for 2 years? In many european countries poeople work till 67 and they have no problem with that couse they know it is necessary. One more thing I can’t understand are senior citizens protest outside parliament house. It is impertinent that they try to decide about things which will never affect them.
New retirement age is the one possible way in our times, I think. The people are getting old, low population growth and the government have no choice. Someone can say: so, let’s change our family policy. But it’s not simple. These days women want to make careers, be succeed. Children are in the background. And I tahink that government won’t change that phenomenon. However in my opinion, physical jobs should be treated in different, more lightly way. But I’m not a specialist, I can be wrong.
I do not see nothing wrong with changes with retirement age. It is the only possibility to improve our situation in this branch. Most of west-european countries have made this changes. The retirement ages in some of these countries is even higher! There is no problem with that, because they know that it is indispensable. We look at Greece and think “we they are surprised about cuts?! We have crisis in Europe so it is necessary!” But we don’t look at ourselves and don’t understand that it is necessary and the only chance nowadays. Maybe in future that change will be replaced by another, better but now we have to understand and agree with this retirement age.
On the oder hand the difference between previous age and after changes isn’t very big and flagrant. It is only two to five years… It doesn’t mean working till die.
In my opinion Polan have to prolong the retirement age. So it is necessary for us to work until 67. This situation is caused by several factors: European crisis, decrease in demographic growth. In order to implement any change we should prepare our society for it. What is more we should pay greater attention to social policy in order to support young people in setting up their own families for example: access to nursery school or kindergartens, free of charge medical service.
European crisis, the decline of population growth, or other such explanations are not sufficient in my opinion, the argument for raising the retirement age. The government should try to solve the problem of getting a lower population and aging society in a different way, because not every person over 60 years of age has such good physical or mental condition would still work. In my opinion human is working on half of his life, that although he could grow old in peace, without a vision of daily attendance at work.
Nowadays people live much longer than they lived about fifty years ago. Our health service is much better. Medicine has developed significantly for all these years so people can live longer. It leads to higher expenses from the state budget. We have crisis in global economy. Governments look how to save money and how to not go to bankrupt. In my opinion we have to accept that situation and work longer or we will be the second Greece. Maybe there are some better solves of this problem but I m not economist and I can’t imagine how to deal with the crisis problem better. Sometimes I meet people who say that they would like to work longer because that was their sense of life. Now they don’t know what to do. I also understand that some professions are hard and some people can be tired and I understand them too.
The extension of the retirement age is not a bad decision until it will cause an increase in unemployment among young people. The average unemployment rate of persons under 25 years of age across the EU is 22,7%. Poland occupies 14th place among EU countries in terms of unemployment, which gives us about 7 places worse position than Belgium where people retire at the age of 60 and get salary which afford them to travel around the world or learn new languages . I’m afraid that the extension of the retirement age makes sense only on the financial side. Many older people are often looking for additional jobs, so they can have more money and save it to go for holidays. Nowadays it is hard to maintain the house and buy medicines if you receive 1000zł of retirement pension only.. On the other hand we still have to keep in mind that a lot of people in the age of 60 are not always able to do their jobs.. Can you imagine surgeon whose eyes are not good anymore or whose arms are trembling??? Elder people sometimes remain closed to new technologies, changing regulations, keeping to be very bureaucratic and closed to new effective solutions for offices and public facilities.. But I hope it will change for better until I retire in 2057:-)
But the decision to increase the retirement age in my estimation will boost the economy in the longer term.
Extending the retirement age will act as a stimulus for the economy and that will be from a group of people with the highest earning power too.
Based on life cycle hypotheses, people tend to spend more during the early age of their careers and save more as retirement approaches. Now that they know retirement is postponed for few more years at least, those people who might be thinking of building a nest egg have the opportunity to spend.
Spending more now will certainly be a boost to domestic consumption which is a main driver of growth.
People will now look to buy a new house, upgrade their cars, do some renovations to their homes or spend on whatever else they want on now knowing that they have the flexibility without worrying about the end of their careers.
I think the retirement age should be lowered rather than raised, because the elderly in some situations take jobs that could deal with young people. Some professions, such as police officer, firefighter, soldier, require high physical fitness, which is often lacking in people aged 67 years
I believe that in today’s world of new technologies, as well in medicine government need to raise the retirement age established many decades ago. Takes into account the current economic downturn in Western economies, is required to take certain steps to reduce the costs of social security, otherwise unnecessary costs of the state can lead to economic collapse on a large scale. Indeed, in many countries, such as China, the institute of pension and social security absent at all, and we able to see the effect of it. Rapidly developing new Asian economies exempted from unnecessary spending and in such a way relieve a lot of funds for the development of economic climate in the country as a whole. Of course, reducing the amount of pension payments makes life of older generation less pleasant, but we must accept the new model of economic development, to ensure a happy future for the next generation, because the future – is everything.
In my opinion th new retirement age is a bad idea. Old people should release their place of work and give chance to young workers. Nowadays young people after studies are unemployed. It is a very big problem.
I looks like Polish goverment does everything in their power to make us work longer and longer. Just a while ago they changed the age of 1 grade students – if parents are willing to, they can sent their kids to school at age of 6, insteed of 7. Now they change the retriment age. I understand – the economy is bad and so on. Athough goverment doesnt have money because they prefer to have a lot of expensive cars, well-paid salary etc. So why look for money in citizents’ pockets. If someone is fired in his 50s, where can he find a job? Noboby will hire 50 or 60-year-old if they can hire more energetic and young person.
In my opinion the retirement age shouldn’t be raised. Nowadays it’s hard to find well-paid job for young people the more for the olders.
No one wants to hire a person over 55 and that’s the biggest problem for people especially when they have to work til they’ll be 67.
Even if they will find a job most of olders are not so healthy, strong and fast as young people what cause them difficulites to handle working and living.
We should stop screaming. We (as a society) should once in the lifetime use our brains and think. The truth is that we are living longer! So the retirement age is based proportionally to the average life expectancy. What is more shocking, that the thousands people protesting and shouting – they are already retired! So what is the point of protesting? The truth is that the first generation that will feel the difference is me, my friends, and my lithe older friends (like in they early thirties) – and I really haven’t met young man protesting about this. No one is happy if he or she should work longer, me either. But I understand that the times are changing. I also see that most of European countries have raised its retirement age long time ago, and no one was screaming.
First of all, the government is not extending retirement age because of that we live longer, in fact the true reason is different. Most of you should probably guess it right now , yes it is all about money, to be more accurate it is about our beloved Social Insurance Institution (ZUS). All of you that work, have to pay taxes, of course that is a normal thing but you (or more accurate your employer) have to pay ZUS contribution for your retirement pension. Every few years you receive a letter form ZUS that states your current total contribution value (it is always written “hypothetical amount”) and also how much pension will you receive when you finally retire. The truth is that there is 0 zlotys on your ZUS account , ” oh, why is that?” you might ask, it is because whenever the employer deposit some percentage of your salary to the ZUS, they immediately take away your money in order to pay pensions for the current people that are retired, and they still can not pay all the pensions, they have to borrow the money from every citizen. We have less children, so there are going to be more and more people retired , so the government need to extend retirement age so they will get some time and they will not have to borrow money for some time. The Minster of Finances , said it himself that in the states best interest it would be better if the citizens die early, because the state would not have to borrow money to pay their pensions. So it is not that we live longer or have less children , all of this retirement age extension is because the state needs money to pay their debts , this is the only reason.
I think that anyone who has at least one brain cell will realize that the only reason for the governments action is not because of their concern for us but just to hide a huge financial problem that has been created by the same government through its negligence of important matters such us low birth rate, the lack of job perspective in Poland for young people etc. The real question for me right now is whether we can do anything about it. Honestly I would like to shoot everyone on Wiejska but even if they were gone there is no one worthy to take their place :(. Of course they themselves are not worthy of governing the state and that leads to my resolve that either there will be a revolution in Poland or a great crisis and that this country will go down.
It’s impossible to hide the fact that polish government is contantly seeking ways to save larger and larger amounts of money. I understand, that we live in the era of crisis, but everything should be took in moderation. Great example is a major improvement of drivers’ speed control, including new controlling devices like monitoring cars. Finance Minister (Jacek Rostowski) did not conceal, that those changes will bring a 1.5 mld zł profit to the polish budget in 2013 year. How much will new retirement age bring? Surely a lot more. I think that polish government should seek savings in other areas of public life, for example taxes. The truth is, that Poland has one of the highest VAT rates (23%), which relates to all citizens. Other countries have lower VAT rates, but they apply very high tax rate for the richest people living in a country. This is really touching for those, who have many riches, but it is much better way of seeking savings. It is not a very good idea to take more form those, who cannot afford everything that they need already.
Extending the retirement age to 67 years is both controversial and necessary idea. On the one hand, we must understand the opponents, who are right in saying that the work of this age is not easy, there are age-related illness, the employee has the right to be more tired and less focused. In addition, the type of industry and different work positions that an employee has to deal with is also important. For example, some of the physical workers at that age can have a lot of difficulties in the implementation of their main responsibilities. On the other hand, we live in an aging society. The level of medical care and medicine is growing dynamically. For several decades burden pension contributions will be large, because it will be a large number of pensioners. The case is difficult to solve economically and socially. In my opinion it would be better if the number of years a person has worked in his or her life have decide about the retirement, not the age.
I must admit I am really glad beucause of this regulation. Nowaydays, considering low birth rate in Poland and enormous financial donations for Social System, such regulation is a Ray of hope. The hope for my generation to receive pension in the future.Personally I do not believe that the government will suport me in any way as i get old (this is also the opinion of former minister – Pawlak). Not supprisingly people over 70 years old will be still working, cause even now it happens. I will be working as well, like it happens in my family even now.
In my opinion, it’s a great change. I know it’s very controversial and a lot of people disagree with it but I think it was necessary and had to happen anyway. The life expectancy is longer and longer, more people resigns from having childreen so it’s natural we should work longer and have a new retirement age. Of course people will be unhappy they need to work longer but I hope in a longer perepective they will see that it’s a good change. In different countries such model exists so it’s not unusual thing. It should help the financial problems in our countries and could solve a lot of dilemmas.