These agreements improve the situation of the beneficiaries in the scope of acquiring right to social security benefits because they guarantee insurance coverage to all persons covered by the personal scope of the agreement. Bilateral social security agreements causes that taking up a work by the Polish citizens in a country bound with Poland by such an agreement always results positively in the acquisition of the right to social security benefits.

The bilateral social security agreements concluded by Poland are based on international standards for such agreements, ie. basic principles of coordination of social security systems:

• the principle of equal treatment,
• the principle of one applicable legislation,
• the principle of aggregation of periods of insurance,
• the principle of preserving acquired rights (export of benefits).

The scope of the agreements is differential. Usually, it includes old-age pensions, disability pensions, survivors' pensions, benefits in respect of accident at work or occupational disease, sickness benefits; and if both parties express their will, also health benefits, family allowances, unemployment benefits.

Social security agreements in force

The following social security agreements are currently in force:

- Agreement of 16 January 1958 between the Government of the Polish People's Republic and the Government of the Federative People's Republic of Yugoslavia on social insurance - in relation to: Bosnia and Hercegovina, Serbia and Montenegro,

- Agreement of 6 April 2006 between the Republic of Poland and Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia on social security,

- Agreement of 2 April 2008 on social security between the Republic of Poland and the United States of America,

- Agreement of 2 April 2008 on social security between the Republic of Poland and Canada,

- Agreement of 25 February 2009 on social security between the Republic of Poland and Republic of Korea,

- Agreement of 7 October 2009 between the Republic of Poland and Australia on social security,

- Agreement of 18 May 2012 between the Republic of Poland and Ukraine on social security,

- Agreement of 9 September 2013 between the Republic of Poland and the Republic of Moldova on social security,

as well as, on the basis of entry in Annex II of Regulation No 883/04:

• Article 33 par. 3 of the Agreement of 7 September 1998 between the Republic of Poland and the Republic of Austria on social security,
• Agreement of 9 October 1975 between the Polish People's Republic and the Federal Republic of Germany on old-age and work injury provisions, under conditions and in the scope indicated in Article 27 par. 2-4 of the Agreement of 8 December 1990 between the Republic of Poland and the Federal Republic of Germany on social security,
• Article 11 par. 3, Article 19 par. 4, Article 27 par. 5, Article 28 par. 2 of the Agreement of 8 December 1990 between the Republic of Poland and the Federal Republic of Germany on social security.

Social security agreement concluded by Poland

Pensions for work in the ghetto

On 1 June 2015 the Agreement between the Republic of Poland and the Federal Republic of Germany on the export of special benefits for eligible persons residing on the territory of the Republic of Poland, which was signed in Warsaw on 5 December 2014, entered into force.

Under this agreement, German pensions for work in the ghetto will be transferred to eligible persons who reside in the territory of the Republic of Poland.

The agreement makes it easier for people interested in obtaining the right to German benefits for employment in the ghetto. The substantive and procedural issues concerning the granting and payment of these benefits remain the exclusive competence of the German side.

More information:

• http://www.deutsche-rentenversicherung.de/Allgemein/de/Inhalt/2_Rente_Reha/01_rente/01_grundwissen/05_rente_und_ausland/07a_zrbg/07_06_zrbg_formulare.html
• http://www.zus.pl/default.asp?p=1&id=5528