Attendance allowance in Poland – how high is it, who is entitled to it and for how long?

If you take care of children or other family members and are registered for sickness insurance, you are then entitled to receive attendance allowance. Remember that if there is a person in your household that is able to provide care of the sick child or another family member, then you cannot benefit from this right. Childcare provided for a child up to 2 years of age is an exception. In such cases you are entitled to attendance allowance even if there is a person in your household that can provide the child with care.  

The mother and the father are equally entitled to the attendance allowance, but it is paid only to one of them, i.e., the one who submits the documents for payment for a particular period. Attendance allowance does not apply for periods of inability to work, during which the insured person retains their right to remuneration, as well as for period of inability to work such as unpaid leave or child care leave.    

Apart from persons who were registered for obligatory sickness insurance, attendance allowance also can be used by persons have been registered for sickness insurance voluntarily. The said group includes entrepreneurs, creators, freelance artists, persons with home base work, working under a mandate agreement, agency agreement, as well as prisoners sent to work.   

Pay period of attendance allowance 

You are entitled to attendance allowance: 

• of 60 days in a calendar year – if you care of a healthy child up to 8 years of age or an ill child up to 14 years of age  

• of 14 days in a calendar year – if you care of an ill child up to 14 years of age or another ill family member (spouse, parents, child’s parent, stepfather, stepmother, in-laws, grandparents, grandchildren, siblings living at the mutual household),   

• of 30 days in a calendar year:   

– if you take care of an ill child with a disability that is over 14 but younger than 18  

– if you take care of a child with a disability who is older than 8 but younger than 18 years of age, if your spouse or parent of your child who constantly provides care for the child is unable to take care of the child due to childbirth, sickness or hospital stay.     

One should bear in mind that the total pay period of the attendance allowance for caring for a child or another family member must not exceed 60 days for all the entitled persons in a particular calendar year.   

Example: if you use 55 days in the particular calendar day for attendance allowance for a 5-year-old child, then you can then only use 5 days of care for a sick parent.   

The number of children in the mutual household is irrelevant, since the limit of 60 days applies collectively to all of them.      

The unused limit of attendance allowance for a particular year is not transferred to the next year.    

Amount of the attendance allowance 

Attendance allowance amounts 80% of the assessment basis. The assessment basis of allowance for the employee is the monthly remuneration for the period of 12 calendar months preceding the month in which the inability to work occurred or, in case of employment shorter than 12 months, for full calendar months of insurance preceding the month in which such inability occurred. The attendance allowance is paid for each day of taking care of the child, including bank holidays.  

Documents needed for the payment of attendance allowance 

The following applications are the basic documents required for the payment of attendance allowance:  

Z-15A – when you take care of a child  

Z-15B – when you take care of a sick family member other than a child.   

Apart from the above-mentioned applications, one also needs to deliver additional documents, depending on the circumstances. And so: 

If you take care of an ill child or family member, a physician should issue for you a medical certificate of temporary inability to work. Apart from the identification details regarding the insured person, payer of contributions or the physician, the document must include information on the period of leave due to provision of personal care of a sick child/family member, the date of birth of the child/family member and the degree of kinship with the insured person.    

When taking care of a child up to 8 years of age due to: 

• unexpected closure of the nursery, kindergarten or school, if the notification is provided less than 7 days before such closure, the employee must file a declaration regarding the existing situation, 

• a situation when the child is suspected to carry an infectious disease that requires isolation, the employee must present a decision issued by a sanitary inspector, 

• childbirth, sickness or hospital stay of the spouse or child’s parent who constantly provides care for the child, the employee should deliver a statement signed by a physician in which the physician provides the details of the spouse or child’s parent who constantly provides care for the child along with the period and reason for the care of the child and the child’s details. 

• sickness of the nursemaid or caregiver, the employee should present a declaration on the sickness of the nursemaid or caregiver and a document confirming such event e.g., a certified true copy of the nursemaid’s/caregiver’s medical certificate or doctor’s note.   

• taking care of a child up to 8 weeks of age, when the mother stays at hospital, the employee should deliver a declaration on the period of the mother’s stay at hospital as well as their own declaration that the child’s mother uses maternity allowance in the period of 8 weeks after the birth of the child.    

• taking care of a child up to 8 weeks of age when the child was abandoned by the mother, the employee should submit a declaration in which they inform about the fact that the child was abandoned by the mother, indicating the date on which the child was abandoned.   

Who pays the allowance: 

– the employer who registers more than 20 people for sickness insurance  

– the Social Insurance Company (ZUS), if the employer registers less than 20 people for sickness insurance.  

ZUS also pays attendance allowance to entitled persons after termination of employment relationship and to persons who conduct non-agricultural business activity and their collaborators.   

If the allowance is paid by ZUS, the payer of contributions should file declaration ZUS Z-3 (in case of employees) or ZUS Z-3a in case of other insured persons.  

Author: Aleksandra Stawowy Manager at the MDDP Outsourcing office in Katowice 

Legal basis: Act of 25 June 1999 on cash benefits from social insurance in case of illness and maternity (consolidated text: Polish Journal of Laws of 2023, item 2780).