‘All allowances disappeared’: some Ukrainian refugees in Poland have stopped receiving child benefits

Against the backdrop of reports about planned reductions in social benefits for Ukrainian refugees in Poland next year, information has emerged that many have already stopped receiving assistance.

Some Ukrainians in Poland are complaining about the non-payment of 500 zlotys per child (4,200 UAH). “For almost a week now, refugees have been noticing that all their payments have disappeared from their personal accounts. The reasons are unknown. Previously, child benefits were listed here,” writes the Telegram channel “Доброго вечора, ми з України” (Good evening, we are from Ukraine).

In conversations with journalists, Ukrainian refugees have confirmed this issue. Most of them briefly left Poland for Ukraine or for vacations in non-EU countries such as Turkey and Egypt. Afterward, the payments vanished. However, some have stopped receiving child benefits without leaving the country.

“I was in Ukraine for just half an hour in May, picking up my cat at the border. I didn’t go anywhere else, but in September, I found that my temporary protection status (PESEL UKR) had been revoked, along with the payments. They explained to me that I needed to request a return certificate via email from the border crossing I used. They said that, according to a new regulation, everything is automatically removed from the system when you cross the border. I’ve written dozens of letters to customs, but so far, without results,” complains Kyiv resident Oksana Levkovich.

“I showed them Mobywatel – the Polish “Diia” (Diia.pl – a digital residence permit for Ukrainian refugees), and they didn’t revoke my status, but the child payments didn’t come through,” says Lviv resident Liliya Fedorovich.

“I reinstated my status, but I’ve been waiting for the money for three months now, and it’s unclear if they will ever arrive,” shares Marina Lyakh.

“We waited for the money for several months after leaving, and in the end, we found an error in the customs report. They need to mark ‘evacuation’ in their system when we re-enter Poland, not ‘tourism,'” explains Galina Myts.

“I re-entered Poland with my child, didn’t stay here for three months. Nobody went back and forth. The ‘Ukr’ status was restored immediately. But the payment issue has been going on for the third month now. After lengthy correspondence with the social insurance authority, they sent a letter stating that, besides the ‘Ukr’ status, we should also be in the border guard register, indicating that we entered Poland due to the war, not as tourists. I’ve written to the border now and am waiting for a response. The information line told me they had never heard of such a thing before. They advised me to write a letter. They say I need to go to the border service secretariat, submit an application, attach a payment receipt (17 zlotys), and receive the document by courier after two weeks,” shares Kyiv resident Inna Danilyuk.

As refugees report, payments are also withdrawn when traveling to non-EU countries, where there is customs control.

“I went on vacation to Turkey in August without my child. They stopped the payments,” says Anna Paraskewich.

“They stopped my payments even though I didn’t go anywhere. Social services aren’t responding; what should I do?” complains Irina Drobnaya, a resident of Kharkiv.

“My ‘Ukr’ status is active, and I haven’t been abroad at all, yet they still stopped the payments. It’s been a couple of months without receiving anything. Letters in the ZUS (Social Insurance Institution) portal and visits to nelf (a Polish bank) have yielded no results. Nothing has been restored. They simply stopped the payments, and that’s it; they don’t seem to care,” laments Natalia Hryb, describing a similar situation.

Representatives of Polish authorities suggest that payment disruptions may occur for those who have traveled outside of Poland.

“Citizens of Ukraine receiving social payments for children or those who have applied for them and plan to leave Poland for more than 30 days must report this to the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS). The reason is that a person leaving Poland for more than 30 days loses the right to legal residence in Poland and temporary protection status, and consequently, the ability to receive social payments. The Social Insurance Institution has tools to check whether a person has left Poland. The institution has access to various government registers, and if necessary, ZUS can use a special register of Ukrainian citizens maintained by the border service. People traveling to EU countries should also report this. ZUS can obtain information about a Ukrainian citizen’s stay in another EU member state as part of the process of providing family benefits in another EU member state. To avoid losing the PESEL UKR status due to leaving Poland for less than 30 days, a foreigner returning to Poland must inform a border service officer of their intention to enter Poland due to the right to temporary protection and show their electronic diia.pl document each time. If a person came to Poland from Ukraine but did not take these actions and lost the PESEL UKR status, they should send an email to the commander of the border crossing they crossed, requesting a change in the registry data, indicating that entry into Poland was due to the right to temporary protection. Then, the person must call the Social Insurance Institution’s hotline or visit any branch in person and inform them that they sent such a message. Once the Social Insurance Institution receives this information and verifies that the data in the border service’s registry has been updated, the payments will be resumed,” stated the press office of the Foreigners’ Affairs Department in Warsaw to “Strana.”

Financial consultant in Poland Anna Samoylenko writes on her Instagram page that even if a Ukrainian refugee leaves Poland for even one day outside the EU, the border guard blocks ZUS payments.

“Upon returning to Poland, they must state that the person is entering Poland not as a tourist but due to the conflict in Ukraine. If the border guard does this, the payments will be unblocked. If the payments are already blocked, you need to send an email to the border crossing you used, specifying your details and the date of crossing the border. Payments are typically resumed about a month after receiving a response,” Samoylenko wrote.

However, under her post, many Ukrainian women complain about bureaucracy and the fact that, in practice, the payments remain frozen.

“They sent us back and forth from uzhonde to ZUS and back. In general, you need to check your status with uzhonda – if it’s valid, submit an application to confirm this status and print out ‘pesel’ with today’s date and the ‘ukr’ status. Then go to ZUS or use the ZUS online scan and attach it to your email and send it, then wait,” shared Julia Shepotinnik.

“Don’t wait; I have the same situation. I called and went to ZUS 20 times – no results for five months. You need to take action. What I did: I wrote to the border crossing I used and also submitted a complaint directly to the government and a letter to the ombudsman. After that, I finally received approval for the payments,” shared a user under the nickname Burgaz.

“They see everything perfectly well, but they can create such formal reasons not to pay, unfortunately. I’m not saying that anyone is obligated to pay, but I stand for fairness,” writes Irina Ivasik.

“Complete chaos and incompetence in ZUS. I also waited for a long time, but there was nothing, even though I wrote letters and reached out to them multiple times. They don’t seem to know what to do and don’t want to know, it seems. And now I’m back in Ukraine, and it seems that nobody will return the money for four months,” says Oksana Liverets.

Ukrainians began to have their payments stopped upon leaving Poland after many continued to receive benefits even after returning to Ukraine.

According to Polish authorities, Ukrainians were overpaid approximately 2 million zlotys in social assistance (almost 17 million UAH), which they are now required to repay.

Meanwhile, Polish authorities plan to reduce some social benefits for Ukrainian refugees in Poland in 2024. This was announced in an interview with PAP by the spokesperson of the Polish government, Petr Müller.

According to him, Ukrainians are no longer leaving Poland in large numbers, so it is possible to discontinue some of the benefits. Currently, Ukrainians in Poland have the right to the following state benefits: “400 Plus” payments – a monthly payment of 400 zlotys (about 3,000 UAH) to parents whose children are in daycare; payments under the Rodzinny kapitał opiekuńczy (RKO) program – up to 1,000 zlotys (a little over 8,000 UAH) for children aged 1 to 3; and “Family 500+” payments – 500 zlotys per child each month (about 4,000 UAH).

Deputy Minister of Family and Social Policy of Poland, Anna Schmidt, stated that the country has spent over 2.5 billion zlotys (approximately 550 million dollars) on assistance to Ukrainian refugees. Most of this amount was allocated as part of the “Family 500+” program.