This page is for people who are approaching retirement age in Poland, have a work record in Ukraine, or already receive a Ukrainian pension and live in Poland.
At what age and with what work record do you get a pension in Poland?
The general retirement age is 60 for women and 65 for men. People born after 31 December 1948 do not need a minimum work record for the right to a pension itself: ZUS (the Social Insurance Institution) writes that contributions for even one day are enough. But the size of the pension depends only on contributions: the amount in your pension account is divided by your life expectancy. So a few years of work in Poland give a small pension.
What is the minimum pension?
The state tops up a pension to the minimum amount if a woman has at least 20 and a man at least 25 years of contributory and non-contributory periods, that is, periods for which contributions were paid and periods that the law counts without contributions. From 1 March 2026, the minimum pension is 1,978.49 zł gross a month. In Poland a renta is paid in case of inability to work or loss of the family breadwinner. The minimum renta for total inability to work, the social renta and the survivor’s renta are the same as the minimum pension, and the renta for partial inability to work is 1,483.87 zł.
There is a deputies’ bill in the Sejm (print No. 3205 of 18 September 2026) that adds one more condition for the top-up: the recorded and indexed contributions must be at least 25 minimum wages. The authors explain this as a fight against “pension tourism”. As of 12 October 2026, this is only a bill, not a law in force.
Does your work record in Ukraine count?
Yes, under the agreement between Poland and Ukraine on social security, signed in Kyiv on 18 May 2012 and in force since 1 January 2014. The agreement works like this:
- Aggregation. If the right to a pension depends on the work record, each country also takes into account insurance periods in the other country, if they do not overlap in time. Periods shorter than 12 months that do not give a right on their own are taken into account by the other country.
- Each country pays its own part. ZUS pays a pension for Polish periods, and the Ukrainian institution pays for Ukrainian periods.
- Periods before 2014 are taken into account, but the agreement does not provide for payments for the time before 1 January 2014.
For people born after 1948, Ukrainian years are not needed for the Polish pension itself: ZUS says so on its page about the agreement with Ukraine. They matter for the top-up to the minimum pension.
How does the top-up to the minimum work with a work record in Ukraine?
The Act on Pensions from the Social Insurance Fund (Article 85(5)) extends the top-up to the minimum to pensions granted under international agreements to people who live in Poland. The Polish pension is increased so that, together with the foreign pension, it is not lower than the minimum. As early as its 2018 explanation, the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy named these conditions for a Ukrainian citizen:
- lives in Poland;
- does not have 20 (women) or 25 (men) years of Polish work record;
- has that many years of Polish and Ukrainian work record together;
- the sum of the ZUS pension and the Ukrainian pension, converted into zloty, is less than the Polish minimum pension.
The explanatory memorandum to bill No. 3205 confirms that it still works this way. According to the ZUS data given there, in July 2026 this top-up was received by 13.1 thousand foreigners, including 1.5 thousand Ukrainian citizens.
How do you apply for a pension?
File one application in the country where you live: under the agreement, an application to an institution of one country counts as an application to the institution of the other. According to ZUS, applications are handled by the international agreements department of the ZUS branch in Rzeszów. You can file them at this branch, at the ZUS office nearest to you or through the PUE online account. For the Polish pension you fill in form EMP, for the Ukrainian one form PL-UA 7. ZUS writes that a Ukrainian pension does not suspend or reduce the Polish one.
How do you receive a Ukrainian pension while living in Poland?
There are two options: receive it to an account in a Ukrainian bank, with annual identification, or transfer the payment to a Polish bank under the agreement.
An account in a Ukrainian bank
For pensioners who live abroad temporarily, the Pension Fund of Ukraine (PFU) pays the pension to accounts in Ukrainian banks on condition that they complete physical identification every year by 31 December. The rule applies to those who were abroad for at least 183 days in a year, or who have temporary protection or refugee status there because of Russia’s aggression and have not obtained documents for permanent residence. To receive your pension in 2027, you must complete identification by 31 December 2026; if you have already completed it in 2026, you do not have to repeat it this year.
You can complete identification in these ways:
- online with Diia.Signature on the PFU web portal or in its app;
- by video call: book online without a qualified signature, or by phone at 0 800 503 753;
- through a Ukrainian embassy or consulate. At your request, the consul certifies that you are alive, and you send the document yourself together with an application to continue payment, written in free form. You must send it by registered letter or by a letter with declared value to the PFU office where you are registered, or upload a scan on the PFU web portal with a qualified electronic signature (KEP).
What happens if you miss 31 December?
If there is no identification record as of 31 December, payment stops from 1 January. It is restored by a decision of the PFU office after identification within a year of the stop, or on an application for renewal. You can file such an application with Diia.Signature or through the PFU web portal with video identification, and from abroad also by post, in the same way as the consul’s document. The law requires payment to be renewed within 10 days after the circumstances are clarified.
The pension for the missed months is paid. Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 299 refers to Article 46 of the law on compulsory state pension insurance. Under that article, a pension not received through the pensioner’s own fault is paid for the past period, but for no more than three years before the application. An amount for no more than 12 months is paid at once, and the rest is paid monthly in equal parts, each no larger than the monthly pension.
Transferring the pension to a Polish bank
The NFZ (the National Health Fund) explains that Ukrainian pensioners who live in Poland get the full right to treatment from the NFZ if their pension is paid through a Polish bank. For this you need a euro account in a Polish bank and an application on form ETR-U to the PFU: either directly to the PFU’s foreign pensions department in Lviv, or through any ZUS office, which forwards it through ZUS in Rzeszów. After the pension arrives, the bank registers the pensioner with the NFZ by the 15th of the following month.
The annual identification procedure does not apply to pensions paid under international agreements. We have not found official information on what replaces it, how often payments arrive, or whether Ukrainian supplements are kept.
The NFZ separately warns that Ukrainian pensioners should not be registered in health insurance as family members.
Tax on a Ukrainian pension
Under the convention between Poland and Ukraine for the avoidance of double taxation, pensions for past employment are taxed only by the country that pays them. We explain other tax rules on the page Taxes in Poland.
What if you have no Polish work record?
There is no old-age pension without contributions in Poland. The social renta (renta socjalna) is granted to people with total inability to work that arose before 18 or during studies before 25, not on the basis of age; holders of temporary protection are not on the list of people to whom the law grants it.
Permanent social assistance (zasiłek stały) for people unable to work because of age exists, but the law does not grant it to holders of UKR status: they can get only shelter, meals, clothing and special-purpose assistance from the gmina. For older people with UKR status, these options remain:
- collective accommodation centers for women aged 60 and over and men aged 65 and over who do not receive a Polish pension, do not work, do not have adult children or grandchildren in Poland who are obliged to support them, and cannot provide housing for themselves; residents with a certificate of residence in such a center have free treatment from the NFZ;
- health insurance through a Ukrainian pension transferred to Poland: this is the route the NFZ describes for Ukrainian pensioners.
Since 5 March 2026, women aged 60 and over and men aged 65 and over cannot register as unemployed to get insurance. Other benefits are described on the page Aid for Ukrainians in Poland.
What mistakes should you avoid?
- Missing the identification with the PFU by 31 December if your pension is paid to a Ukrainian account.
- Assuming that the consul’s document will reach the PFU without your involvement: you must send it yourself.
- Registering a pensioner whose Ukrainian pension is paid through a Polish bank as a family member with the NFZ.
- Treating bill No. 3205 as a law in force.
- Counting on a Polish old-age pension without contributions: there is no such pension.