Attack on ZUS. Almost 400 thousand Poles want to add “garbage” to the internship

Nearly 400 thousand Applications for issuing a work experience certificate have been received by the Social Insurance Institution since January. In the opinion of the Minister of Family, Labor and Social Policy, Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk, the great interest proves that the internship act was long awaited by Poles.

The new regulations in force from January 1 allow for periods of work to be included in the length of service, including: on your own business or commission contracts. Thanks to this, the employee can have longer vacation leave, more quickly obtain the right to an internship allowance, a jubilee award or apply for higher positions, e.g. in public administration.

In the opinion of the Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Policy, Agnieszka Dziemianowicz-Bąk, this is “an important and good change that restores the dignity of work, which values ​​all work, regardless of the form in which it was performed.”

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– This is a change that has already benefited nearly 400,000 Poles, because this number of applications has already been submitted to the Social Insurance Institution, and we know that there will be more and more of them – said Dziemianowicz-Bąk during her Wednesday visit to Radom.

– We know that this is a change that benefits both people who ran their own business, but also those who were sometimes pushed into the so-called junk contracts or simply worked under civil law contracts – said the minister.

According to her, new regulations in the Labor Code were necessary. – I am very glad that this act is being adopted, that we have first-hand evidence that it has been long-awaited, and I encourage everyone to take advantage of it and apply to ZUS for issuing certificates, because it is worth it – emphasized the head of the Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Policy.

ZUS announced on Monday that there is very high interest in the new regulations on adding periods of work to the internship.

By January 31, 372,006 applications were received for issuing a certificate confirming periods other than employment under an employment contract (including mandate contracts, business activities and child care). So far, ZUS has considered over 276,695 applications and issued a total of 620,479 certificates.

The plant reminded that the regulations on seniority come into force in stages. For the public sector, the changes are effective from the beginning of 2026, and for the private sector they will be applied from May 1, 2026. This means that some employers will take into account additional seniority from January 1, and some will do it only from May 1.

Work experience now covers not only employment contracts, but also other forms of professional activity. The internship includes, among others: periods of performance of mandate contracts or other contracts for the provision of services or agency contracts, periods of conducting non-agricultural business activity, cooperation with a person running this activity and the period of its suspension in order to provide personal care for the child.

The periods of employment before the entry into force of the Act are included in the length of service. The condition is that they are properly documented. The employee has 24 months from the entry into force of the Act to present the documents to his or her current employer.

An application for a certificate can only be submitted electronically using an account in the Institute's IT system (eZUS). From January 1, 2026, the “Application for issuing an insurance certificate for the purposes of adding periods to the length of service” – USP – is available on eZUS.

The certificate, decision and other letters regarding the issuance of certificates are delivered by ZUS only in electronic form to the eZUS account. The insured person or his representative will be automatically informed about the response to the application. If they have notifications turned on, they will receive information via SMS, e-mail or in the mZUS mobile application. (PAP)

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