What is it all about with June pensions? For many years, people born in June, but after 1948, they were unlucky. Or maybe you have to say: they were treated unfairly by a defective law.
For if they retired in June (with the retirement age), they lost. If they submitted an application, for example, in May, they would receive a benefit for a few percent higher.
The problem with the amount of payments was due to error in the system and co -occurrence of annual and quarterly valorisations. And hence the persons submitting the application for retirement in June, or those who in June ZUS established the right to a pension automatically – for example, instead of the current pension, unlike other insured people, they were deprived of very favorable valorisation for the first quarter of a given year. We write more about it here.
Some such people went to court with ZUS and appealed against the decision on the amount of the pension granted to them. We will return to the issue of court proceedings in this text.
Long history of June pensions
Although the problem has been known for many years and concerns pensioners since 2009, no one could solve it systemically. In 2020 in the so -called The Covid act was changed only for people retiring in June this particular year.
A year later, the case was regulated for later years, i.e. from 2021 above. The then PiS government, however, did not solve the problem of those who had their undeveloped pension since 2009, although the opposition at that time reported such amendments. What's more, he was late with the introduction of the law, which is why he extended the new transitional provisions so that they work back, i.e. for people retiring in June 2021.
As Business Insider tells Dr. Tomasz Lasocki from the Department of Administration and Social Sciences of the Warsaw University of Technology, it was Tan that the transitional provision was questioned by the District Court in Elbląg, which decided to ask the Constitutional Tribunal in this case.
The one in November 2023 decided that the transitional provisions introduced by PiS were unconstitutional and ordered the beneficial regulations to also be covered by the June pensioners of 2009-2019.
And then a new government enters the game, which does not recognize the Constitutional Tribunal in this composition. A complete accident in the Government Legislation Center appeared in 2024, which solves the problem of these years.
Important corrections in recipes
The project was adopted by the government and later went to the Sejm. At Business Insider Polska, Jolanta Ojczyk wrote thenthat there are at least two serious shortcomings in it. Dr. Tomasz Lasocki pointed out this.
The first concerned the conversion mode of low pensions. Originally, this was to take place at a clear pensioner request.
– Pensioners may not know if the application for the benefit was submitted in June and Just in case, they will submit an application for conversion. Similarly, many pensioners may not remember years later whether their application was just submitted in June. Therefore ZUS will have more work with unjustified conclusions – said Dr. Lasocki at the time.
As part of the work in parliament, the regulations were changed. Now pensions will be converted from the machine within three months of the entry into force of the Act, i.e. from January 1, 2026.
What's more, pensions will be converted to July 1, 2025. The government decided that since it was late with the act towards the original announcements, it would be a form of compensation. This means that the seniors will get equalization in six months of 2025. Example? If after conversion it turns out that the pension was lowered by PLN 100, then in January such a pensioner will receive an additional PLN 600 alignment (for July, August, September, October, November and December 2025).
The second doubt concerned those who went to court with ZUS, because they demanded the equalization for years of low benefits.
The original version of the Act assumed that from January 1, 2026, all administrative and court proceedings would be suspended.The final version, which went to the president, already assumes that the proceedings will be continued until their validation. New new ones will be initiated.
– This is a more favorable solution for those who went to court – Dr. Lasocki tells us.
What about this alignment?
The expert, therefore, we ask if this is a good time to go to court with ZUS before entering into force. In order to try to win a larger one than six months.
– In theory maybe yes, but to go to court, you must have a ZUS decision, because this appeal initiates a dispute with the plant. Therefore, it should be requested, for example, to recalculate the pension, and only after receiving a refusal response to go to court, but then the possible compensation will be entitled from the month of submitting the application – explains Dr. Lasocki.
He adds that in practice only those who have taken care of the ZUS decision to calculate the amount of the pension will continue to proceed.
Between fairy tales you can put discussions that someone will be able to “pull out” alignment, e.g. from June 2015.
– The Constitutional Tribunal decided not that the June pensions were unconstitutional, although they were unfair. The verdict concerned that in 2021 eleven years were arbitrarily omitted. If someone wins the pending proceedings, then the court will probably not charge the payment of the outstanding benefit for the period earlier than the day of issuing the judgment – he explains.
