Funeral allowance up from January 1. Senate for 7,000 zloty

On Wednesday, the Senate did not submit amendments to the amendment to the Act on increasing the funeral allowance from 4 to 7 thousand. zloty. Its amount is to be valorized in March if the inflation rate in the previous year exceeds 5 percent. The increase is to come into force from January 1, 2026.

88 senators voted for reception without amendments to the act. The act will now go to the president.

The current amount of a one -time benefit in the event of death and the associated need to burial remains unchanged since 2011. The Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Policy has prepared an amendment to the Act on pensions and disability pensions from the Social Insurance Fund and some other acts.

The amendment assumes an increase in funeral allowance to 7,000 zloty.

During the discussion on the Act, the deputy head of MRPiPS Sebastian Gajewski emphasized that the purpose of the proposed changes in the regulations is to support families in the organization of a “modest” funeral. He explained that it was a funeral in a narrow sense, which within the meaning of ZUS, does not include tombstone and slices in the amount of funeral grant.

Earlier, the ministry announced that PLN 1.2 billion would be allocated to increasing the funeral allowance. “These changes are not only not extensive, but are not very expensive. It is PLN 1.2 billion a year from over PLN 400 billion of expenses from the Social Insurance Fund” – argued Gajewski.

The allowance will be subject to valorisation from March 1, if inflation in the previous year exceeds 5 percent.

“We do not want the annual, automatic valorisation of the funeral allowance to launch an annual, automatic increase in funeral prices. The valorisation is to ensure the maintenance of the purchasing power of the funeral allowance, and not a constant increase in prices on the funeral services market” – explained Gajewski.

The new regulations also say about the principle of settling the so -called targeted allowance. He may be granted to a person who covered the costs of the funeral, if the deceased is not entitled to an allowance, or if the person who covered the costs of the funeral is entitled to the funeral allowance and incurred extraordinary costs in connection with the funeral, difficult to predict and impossible to cover from the funeral allowance.

The unusual, difficult to predict the costs of the funeral included, for example, bringing corpses from abroad, whose minimum cost is usually about 6-7 thousand. PLN, or longer storage of corpses in the cold store.

The regulation provides that the purposeful allowance in social assistance should be available without a income criterion and without limiting the amount (or up to the amount indicated by the absolute number, or up to the amount of the income criterion) and was granted subject to the obligation to reimburse the amount of the benefit by the Beneficiary (e.g. business insurance benefits).

The planned date of entry into force of the Act is January 1, 2026 (PAP)

kblu/ Jann/ lm/