The Polish government may deprive the most vulnerable categories of foreigners of assistance.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk wants to tighten the rules for receiving child benefits for immigrants and refugees, limiting the provision of assistance only to those foreigners with children who work in Poland and pay taxes.
Euractiv writes about this.
Last month, the candidate for the presidency of Poland from Tusk's Civic Platform party, Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, announced the need to change the rules for providing assistance to migrants and refugees. In his opinion, the state should only help those who contribute to the country's economy, and not just sit on the state's neck.
Tusk supported this idea, promising that the government would “study” it. According to journalists, the government will soon present a specific draft of changes.
The publication notes that the government program “Family 500+” has been in effect in Poland for 8 years. Under the program, all migrants and refugees with children who live in the country legally and have the right to work receive a monthly child benefit of 800 zlotys (almost 200 euros). Last year, more than half a million foreign children received such benefits, and in 2023, there were 70 thousand more recipients of child benefits. At the same time, the current rules require that the foreign parent permanently resides in Poland and has a residence card with the note “access to the labor market”, but do not require the recipient of the benefit to have a job.
The government coalition criticizes Trzaskowski's proposal.
“Ukrainian children are often in the care of grandparents or single mothers who cannot work. Why should we deprive those who need them most of benefits? It's a question of values,” MEP for Poland 2050 Michał Kobosko told reporters.
He added that helping Ukrainians also benefits the Polish society.
“We are at a point where we need workers. Ukrainians integrate very easily into Polish society, often taking jobs that have been unoccupied for a long time,” he noted.
At the same time, the employment rate among Ukrainian refugees is quite high – 78% of them work, while in the country as a whole only 68% of foreigners are employed.
However, according to a survey conducted by United Surveys for the news outlet Wirtualna Polska, the majority of Poles (85.9%) support the reduction of benefits for foreigners and only 8.4% are against it.
Recall that over the almost three years of war in Poland, the number of Ukrainians has decreased. The latest data from the European Statistical Office show an increase in the number of Ukrainian citizens leaving Poland for Germany. Germany has become one of the EU countries where Ukrainians are actively moving.
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