7000 PLN payout for everyone. Income irrelevant. The decision was made unanimously

• On 23 April 2025, the Sejm Social Policy and Family Committee unanimously supported the draft amendment to the Act on Pensions and Annuities from the Social Insurance Fund.
• The project assumes increasing the funeral allowance from PLN 4,000 to PLN 7,000.
• The changes are to come into force on January 1, 2026.

The assumptions of the project were presented at the committee meeting by Sebastian Gajewski, Deputy Minister of Family, Labor and Social Policy. He recalled that the current amount of the funeral allowance is PLN 4,000 and has remained unchanged since 2011. The project - as he said - provides for an increase in the benefit to PLN 7,000.

The Deputy Minister noted that the funeral allowance is currently the only retirement and disability benefit that is not subject to indexation. He added that the project provides for the introduction of a mechanism for indexation of the allowance, but on different principles than in the case of retirement and disability pensions.

-We propose an autonomous indexation rate dedicated to the funeral allowance. This is largely due to the fact that the funeral allowance has completely different functions than other retirement and disability benefits - said the deputy head of MRPiPS.

According to the project, the benefit will be subject to indexation from March 1 in a situation where inflation exceeds 5 percent in the previous year . As the deputy minister explained, the lack of annual indexation of the benefit is to prevent an increase in the prices of funeral services.

The Deputy Minister announced that the cost of increasing the funeral allowance amounts to PLN 1.2 billion in 2026.

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The draft amendment also regulates the principle of settling the so-called special allowance. According to the draft, it may be granted to a person who covered the costs of a funeral if they are not entitled to a funeral allowance after the deceased.

- An example would be a situation where a mother is uninsured because she works under a contract for specific work, has a child who is small and uninsured. After the death of such a child, she will not be entitled to a funeral allowance - said Gajewski.

According to the project, the special-purpose allowance will also be granted in the event that the person who covered the funeral costs is entitled to a funeral allowance and incurred extraordinary costs related to the funeral, which were difficult to predict and impossible to cover from the funeral allowance . The Deputy Minister indicated that this is, for example, the repatriation of a body from abroad.

Gajewski emphasized that the specific benefit from social assistance will be available without any income criterion and without any limit on the amount (neither to the amount indicated by an absolute number nor to the amount of the income criterion).

- When it comes to the amount of targeted benefits - because they are social assistance benefits - the body granting such a benefit will be able to determine its amount, adequately to the situation of the applicant - said the deputy head of the Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Policy.

In the discussion on the project, Adrian Pokrywczyński from the Association of Polish Counties said that the changes had not been consulted with the local government side. He added that the project imposes new tasks on the communes related to the earmarked allowance.

- Now, there is a special allowance for a funeral, but it is linked to the income criterion. Here, the introduction of this form of regulations changes the situation and we are dealing with the fact that the administrative procedure will be slightly longer - Pokrywczyński noted.

Gajewski responded that the only entity that "has a legal obligation to bury anyone" is the commune. As he explained, the government is not introducing new benefits, it is only expanding and modifying the conditions for granting the special-purpose allowance that currently exists.

He also emphasized that the project was submitted to the Joint Government and Local Government Commission, which did not submit an opinion on it within the statutory deadline. At the same time, he added, the project was the subject of a meeting of the health care and social policy team of the joint government and local government commission on May 13, 2024. The deputy minister noted that the comments of local government officials were discussed in the consultation report made available on the Government Legislation Center website.

Funeral allowance is available to:

• a family member,
• employers,
• social welfare home,
• commune,
• district,
• a legal person of a church or religious association,
• to a stranger,

if they covered the funeral costs and have documents confirming this (e.g. an invoice).

The following are considered family members:

• spouse (widower, widower, and separated spouse),
• parents, stepfather, stepmother and adoptive person,
• own children, children of the other spouse and adopted children,
• children accepted for upbringing as part of a foster family,
• other children taken in for upbringing and maintenance before reaching the age of majority,
• siblings,
• grandparents,
• grandchildren,
• persons over whom legal guardianship has been established.

Funeral allowance is payable upon the death of:

• a person who was granted the right to a pension or disability pension,
• a person who was granted a bridging pension,
• a person who is insured with ZUS (including those receiving maternity allowance or an allowance in the amount of maternity allowance for the period after the sickness insurance entitlement has ceased to exist),
• a person who was granted a teacher's compensatory benefit,
• a person who died while receiving sickness benefit or rehabilitation benefit after the insurance had ended,
• a person who, on the date of death, was not granted a retirement or disability pension, but met the conditions for obtaining one,
• a person who received a cash benefit as a blind civilian victim of warfare,
• a person who received a pre-retirement benefit or pre-retirement allowance,
• a person who received a social pension,
• a person who died as a result of an accident or occupational disease arising in special circumstances,
• a family member of the person mentioned in points 1–4, 8 and 10.

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