The government has been working on the introduction of a senior voucher for months. Reform is already overdue. This is one of the milestones planned in the KPO, it should enter into force on January 1 this year, but the project has not even been adopted by the government yet. There is no consensus among ministers as to the final shape of the new program.
Senior voucher only if family members work
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The current bill assumes that the senior voucher is to be granted to people aged 75 and over who, due to their health condition, need support in their everyday life and cannot count on such help from their spouse or children because they work. In such a situation, the state will finance care up to PLN 2,000. PLN 150 per month. This is to be performed by trained caregivers. Support is to be provided by caregivers who have undergone appropriate training and obtained a certificate. The document will be valid for 10 years.
Depending on the senior’s needs, assistance will be provided for a minimum of 5 hours and a maximum of PLN 50 per month. The amount of the pension of the senior and his family members will be taken into account:
• a senior’s income will not exceed PLN 3,000. PLN 410,
• income of relatives – cannot be lower than PLN 3,000. PLN 500 and cannot exceed PLN 6,000. PLN 700 per month (if he runs a single-person household) or PLN 10,000. PLN (if it is a household consisting of several people).
The government is accelerating reform for seniors. There will be new money. The application will only last one month [WZÓR]
A senior without a family will not receive a voucher
However, there is a catch in the program. The senior voucher will be available if the senior has a spouse, children or grandchildren. This was noticed by the Minister of Funds, Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz. “The proposed solution leads to the exclusion from access to the senior voucher of people requiring support, who live alone and do not have a professionally active spouse or descendant. As a result, people in the so-called late old age, often requiring care and nursing from another person, will not be able to use the catalog of services that will be provided under the senior voucher,” says Minister Pełczyńska-Nałęcz. As he emphasizes, this solution will lead to a situation in which lonely seniors without family support will only be able to use social assistance.
There was supposed to be a voucher for PLN 2,150 for seniors next year. It won’t. The government didn’t have time
A senior voucher even for a neighbor?
Her ministry is planning changes to the project. It proposes that in the absence of descendants or a spouse, a single person can indicate another person entitled to receive a voucher (e.g. distant relatives, neighbors, other close people) who would help in organizing appropriate care. The Minister of Funds is also urging the government to quickly adopt the reform. “Taking into account that the draft law is a key element of the A4.6 reform of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan >>Increase in the economic activity rate of specific groups through the development of long-term care<< and taking into account the delay in the implementation of the reform, I draw attention to the need to urgently proceed with this reform at the next stages of legislative work," says Pełczyńska-Nałęcz. The project assumes that this year seniors would submit applications only in September. However, it is possible that this deadline will be extended during legislative work.
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Grzegorz Krzyżewski / Fotonews
Marzena Okła-Drewnowicz has been working on the regulations implementing the senior voucher for months. The current shape of the reform assumes that support will go to people whose spouses or children work and therefore cannot take care of a senior.
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Grzegorz Krzyżewski / Fotonews
Minister of Funds Katarzyna Pełczyńska-Nałęcz indicates that single people will be excluded from the new support.
