With the Large Family Card seniors can manage their free time. The study “Quality of seniors’ lives in Poland” conducted by GUS implies that 85 percent of seniors are satisfied with the amount of free time they can manage and 73 percent are satisfied with their lives.

As of 1 January 2019 the right to the Large Family Card is vested in all parents and spouses of parents who have or had provided for at least three children in total. A parent is also understood as a foster parent or a person running a family orphanage.

Culture for a senior

Discounts within the LFC allow seniors to use cheaper tickets to cinemas, theatres and operettas. The GUS study implies that in this sphere seniors still have huge needs. As far as going to cinemas, theatres and at concerts is concerned, 18 percent of seniors over 65 years of age indicate some activity, respectively. Museums are visited by 19 percent of them.

Those needs are met with the LFC discounts. All around Poland there are 563 discounts in culture, including 227 museums, 91 cinemas, 45 theatres and 23 art galleries.

The Wilam Horzyca Theatre (Teatr im. Wilama Horzycy) in Torun offers a discount of 40 percent on the price of a standard ticket with the Large Family Card. Seniors are an important and increasingly active group in theatre. Currently, approx. 15 percent more seniors come to theatres than a few years ago. – We invited local seniors to the play “The Nutcracker. New stories” (“Dziadek do orzechów. Nowe historie”). They had shared their stories which were later on included in the script and the seniors themselves has performed on the scene. Furthermore, we started the Senior Theatre Academy (Teatralna Akademia Seniora), that is, discussion and movement meetings which are largely popular – says Paweł Paszta, the Artistic Director of the Wilam Horzyca Theatre (Teatr im. Wilama Horzycy) in Torun. Discounts for seniors with the Card are also offered by the chain of cinemas Cinema 3D, which operates, among others, in Warsaw, Gdansk, Kalisz or Świdnica.

Moreover, the Large Family Card allows free entry to national parks. For example, Wielkopolski National Park is visited by over one million tourists a year. In the park there are five marked hiking trails with a total length of 85 km. Using these trails, 7 trip routes were created allowing learning not only about nature, but also cultural values of this area. Persons visiting the park can plan Nordic walking along the hiking trails. Furthermore, using the discount ticket with the LFC (cost of PLN 2.5) they can also visit the National History Museum of the Wielkopolski National Park in Jeziory. In the last year, there were 114 visitors with the LFC.

Discounts on health services

Due to the new provisions, seniors can benefit from the sanatorium and recreation offer, using discounts together with the Large Family Card. On the Empatia’s website, under the entry “sanatoriums” there are sixteen centres offering such discounts. They are located in Lower Silesian (6), Pomeranian (3), Lublin, Subcarpathian and West Pomeranian (2 in each) and Świętokrzyskie (1) voivodeships.
– Our centres specialise in the offer of sanatorium stays without a referral. Joining the Large Family Card programme was obvious for us – says Lucyna Lalik, the Marketing Manager of Ośrodek Magnolia i Tulipan, in Ustroń. – Our services are mainly addressed at the elderly and for them we have prepared attractive discounts at the centres – she adds. It is a discount of 10 percent on classic sanatorium stays, 10 percent of discount on sanatorium stays with treatment using Father Grzegorz Sroka’s herbs.

Whereas, Sanatorium Uzdrowiskowe, Ośrodek Rehabilitacji i Odnowy Biologicznej “Oaza”, in Inowrocław is visited by seniors, parents and their children. – We provide access to catering, wellness therapy, recreation, spa therapy – enumerates Sylwia Bąkowska. She adds that persons with the LFC in the sanatorium are mainly the inhabitants of Inowrocław and surroundings, but they are also sometimes visited by persons from all over Poland.
Persons with the Card are entitled to the discount on the following services: wellness therapy, hotel, catering, resort vacation, recreation and spa therapy.
In the period from May to September - 10 percent, from January to April and from October to December - 20 percent.

Activation within the social policy

Due to the social policy seniors have increasingly bigger opportunities of cultural, educational and sports activity. Specific social activity centres include senior homes and clubs. Seniors can participate in catering workshops, sports activities and they can pursue their passions.

Thanks to the support programme in the year 2018 alone 67 day Senior+ homes and 193 Senior+ clubs were established. In total, 260 premises were established all around Poland. The majority of establishments were set up in the Mazovian Voivodeship – 45 (8 homes and 37 clubs), Lesser Poland - 34 (5 and 29) and Silesian – 21 (6 and 15). In 2019, PLN 80 million is allocated to the Senior+ continuation.

The Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy has also implemented the Governmental Programme for Social Participation of Senior Citizens (the ASOS Programme). This programme is aimed at improving the quality and level of life of the elderly and managing their potential by providing them with the opportunity of social activity.

The programme assumes simultaneous actions in four areas covering seniors’ social activity. That is: education of the elderly, social activity promoting internal and intergenerational integration, social participation of the elderly and social services for the elderly. In 2018, 325 offers of a total amount of approx. PLN 38 million were accepted for financing. 106,088 beneficiaries were covered with planned actions.