Pension advisers at work as Poland prepares to lower retirement age

As of 1 October, women in Poland will be able to retire at 60, and men at 65. This is after Poland’s ruling conservatives reversed a 2012 reform by the previous government that would have ultimately increased the retirement age to 67 for both sexes.

Elżbieta Rafalska, the family, labour and social policy minister, has voiced hope that many Poles will decide to defer their retirement and stay active professionally despite the new rules.

She said that retirement is a right and not an obligation.

The advisers are equipped with special calculators to show how working longer will change monthly pension payouts.

An additional 331,000 people will be entitled to retire throughout the country after the lower retirement age kicks in on 1 October, officials say.

Most of these citizens have already benefitted from the services of pension advisers, according to a spokesman for ZUS, Wojciech Andrusiewicz.

The institution has "identified all the clients who can benefit from the reduced retirement age" and is prepared to handle paperwork for all of them, Andrusiewicz has told Poland’s PAP news agency.

But not all of these people will decide to leave the job market once the new rules come into force, according to Andrusiewicz. (str/pk)

Source: PAP