Family Care Capital, the 12,000+ benefit is granted to you for the second and subsequent children in a family if:

• you are a child’s mother,
• you are a child’s father,
• you adopted a child into custody and applied to the guardianship court for initiating the adoption procedure,

and a child lives with you and you support them.

If, according to the court’s decision, you share joint custody with the other parent, you and the other parent can receive a benefit in the amount of the benefit (see the crosshead: What is the amount of the benefit?).

Family Care Capital will be granted to you for the second and subsequent children in a family, therefore, in the application you must indicate the first child in the family. The first child in the family is the oldest child in the family. Their age does not matter.

If children were born on the same day, month and year (e.g. twins), the oldest child in the family is the child you will indicate in the application.

The first child in the family is:

• own child,
• spouse’s child,
• child of the other parent with whom the parent raises the common child,
• child adopted into custody if you applied to the guardianship court for initiating the adoption procedure.

The family is:

• spouses,
• parents of children raising a common child,
• single parent raising a child: unmarried woman, bachelor, widow, widower, person in separation adjudicated by a final decision of the court, divorced person,
• person who adopted a child into custody and applied to the guardianship court for initiating the adoption procedure,
• children of the above-mentioned persons.

Members of the family do not include a child:

• being in care of a legal guardian,
• placed in foster care,
• which was placed in foster care on the day of coming of age,
• in relation to whom the applicant or recipient of capital is deprived of parental authority,
• in relation to whom the applicant or recipient of capital was deprived of parental authority on the date on which the child came of age.

These children cannot be indicated in the application as the first (oldest) child in the family.

Family care capital can be received from the first day of the month in which a child turns 12 months old until the last day of the month in which the child turns 35 months old.

If you adopted a child into custody and applied to the guardianship court for initiating the adoption procedure, you will receive family care capital from the first day of the 12^th month counted from the date on which you applied to the court until the end of the 35^th month, but up to the:

• month in which a child turns 7 years old,
• month in which a child turns 10 years old – if a decision on postponing the school obligation was issued for this child.

You will not receive family care capital if:

• child has been placed in foster care,
• you have been deprived of parental authority,

• you or a member of your family are entitled to receive abroad a benefit similar to capital (not applicable to benefits from the EU/EFTA Member States or the United Kingdom).

Family care capital does not depend on the income of your family and will amount to PLN 12 thousand in total for the second and subsequent children.

As a child’s parent, you can choose whether to receive the benefit in the amount of PLN 500 for 24 months or PLN 1 000 for 12 months. During the benefit payment period, you can change your decision on the monthly amount of the benefit once.

The total amount of family care capital (up to PLN 12 thousand per child) will be reduced by PLN 500 a month when you apply for capital:

• after the end of the last day of the month in which a child turned 13 months old,
• after the end of the last day of the 13^th month counted from the date on which you applied to the guardianship court for initiating the adoption procedure.

If your child turned 12 months old but did not turn 35 months old before 1 January 2022, you are entitled to receive family care capital in the amount of PLN 12 thousand less PLN 500 for each month before 1 January 2022 starting with the month in which the child turned 12 months old. This rule also applies to you if before 1 January 2022 you adopted a child into custody and applied to the guardianship court for initiating the adoption procedure.

If, according to the court’s decision, you share joint custody with the other parent (from whom you are divorced or separated) in comparable and repeated periods, each of you can receive family care capital in half of the amount for the given month (PLN 250 or PLN 500).

You will receive your capital in the non-cash form every month:

• to the account number in Poland indicated by you in your application,
• to the bank account in an EU/EFTA Member State if you live there.

You can apply for family care capital at the earliest on 1 January 2022.

As a child’s mother or father, you can submit an application:

• from the first day on which the child turns 9 months old,
• until the end of the month in which the child turns 13 months old.

If you submit an application within this period, you will be eligible for capital from the first day of the month in which your child turns 12 months old until:

• the last day of the month in which a child turns 23 months old – if you indicated in the application that you would like to receive capital in the amount of PLN 1,000 a month,
• the last day of the month in which a child turns 35 months old – if you indicated in the application that you would like to receive the capital in the amount of 500 a month.

If you submit an application after the month in which the child turns 13 months old, you will receive reduced capital (by PLN 500 for every past month since the moment in which the child turns 12 months old) – see the crosshead: What is the amount of the benefit?

If you adopted a child into custody, you can submit an application:

• from the first day of the 9^th month counted from the date on which you applied to the guardianship court for initiating the adoption procedure,
• until the last day of the 13^th month counted from the date on which you applied to the guardianship court for initiating the adoption procedure.

If you submit an application within this period, you will receive capital:

• from the first day of the 12^th month counted from the date on which you applied to the guardianship court for initiating the adoption procedure,
• until the last day of the 23^rd month (with a monthly amount of PLN 1,000) or 35^th month (with a monthly amount of PLN 500) counted from the date on which you applied to the court, but not longer than:
  • until the month in which a child turns 7 years old,
  • until the month in which the child turns 10 years old – if a decision on postponing the school obligation was issued for this child.

If you submit an application after these dates, you will receive capital from the first day of the month in which you submitted an application.

You can apply for family care capital in January 2022 also:

• if you are a parent of a child who turned 12 months old before 2022,
• if you adopted a child into custody and the 12^th month counted from the date on which you applied to the guardianship court for initiating the adoption procedure lapsed before 2022.

If you submit an application later 31 January 2022, you will receive capital from the month of submitting the application.

To receive family care capital, you must submit to ZUS the following application:

• RKO-R – if you are a child’s parent,
• RKO-) – if you applied to the guardianship court for adoption of a child.

The application for family care capital and attachments thereto may be submitted electronically only.

You can submit the RKO-R and RKO-O applications via the ZUS Electronic Services Platform (PUE).

If you are a child’s mother or father and have the PESEL number, you can also submit the RKO-R application via:

• Ministry of Family and Social Policy Emp@tia portal,
• your bank:
  • as from 04 January 2022 via: Bank PKO BP, ING Bank Śląski S.A., mBank S.A., Millenium S.A., PEKAO S.A.,
  • as from 11 January 2022 via Getin Noble Bank S.A.
  • as from 24 January 2022 via: Bank Pocztowy S.A., Credit Agricole Bank Polska S.A.
  • as from 1 February 2022 via: Alior Bank S.A., BPS S.A., Santander, BNP Paribas S.A., SGB-Bank S.A., SKOK Energia, SKOK im. Powstańców Śląskich, SKOK Ziemi Rybnickiej, SKOK Unii Lubelskiej, SKOK Progres, SKOK Śląsk, SKOK Wisła, SKOK Chmielewskiego, SKOK Stefczyka, Krakowska SKOK, SKOK Szopienice, SKOK Świdnik, SKOK Centrum, SKOK Kwiatkowskiego, Regionalna SKOK im. Św. Brata Alberta

If you submit an application via a bank or the Emp@tia portal and you do not have a PUE ZUS profile, the Social Insurance Institution will set up such a profile for you based on the data from the application for family care capital.

To receive family care capital, you must attach the following documents to your online application:

• the certificate of the guardianship court or adoption centre on the ongoing court procedure concerning the adoption of a child with the date of the application to the court – if you adopted a child into custody,
• the statement of the date of adopting a child into custody for whom you applied to the court for initiating the adoption procedure,
• the decision or certificate from the head of a public school on postponing the school obligation – if a child aged between 7 and 10 is subject to the postponed school obligation,

• the court’s decision on joint custody – if you share joint custody with the other parent (from whom you are divorced or separated) in comparable and repeated periods.
• the document confirming the nature of the foreigner’s stay in Poland, e.g. residence card with the annotation “access to the labour market”, permanent residence card (not applicable to EU/EFTA citizens).
• How will the institution contact you?
• If you do not complete the application properly, the Social Insurance Institution will call on you to correct the application within 14 days.
• If you do not submit the required documents, the Social Insurance Institution will call on you to deliver them and will designate a time-limit from 14 to 30 days.
• You will also receive the information on the need to correct or supplement the application to your e-mail address and the phone number you provided in your application.
• If you do not correct or supplement your documents within the designated time-limit, the Social Insurance Institution will not process your application.
• If the Social Insurance Institution grants you family care capital, it will not issue a decision. You will receive the information about this to your PUE ZUS profile, as well as to the e-mail address you will provide in your application.

ZUS will issue a decision on the following matters:

• refusal to grant family care capital,
• cancellation of the right to receive family care capital,
• change in the amount of family care capital,
• unduly collected family care capital.

ZUS will deliver you the decision electronically only – to your PUE ZUS profile.

You may appeal against the decision to the President of ZUS within 14 days of delivery of the decision.

You have the right to file a complaint against the decision of the President of ZUS to the voivodeship administrative court within 30 days of delivery of the decision.

The provisions of the Act on family care capital define a maximum time limit for ZUS to process an application for capital. It is 2 months from the date of submitting the application together with the documents. In turn, the payment of eligible capital takes place no earlier than in the month from which the right to capital is granted.

If capital is granted, a parent will receive the information on granting the benefit, to the inbox in the PUE ZUS profile. The same applies where the application has been submitted via electronic banking or the Emp@tia portal.

If capital cannot be granted, ZUS will issue a negative decision. In this case, a parent will receive a negative decision to the PUE ZUS profile. The decision of ZUS may be appealed against to the President of ZUS and then a complaint may be filed to an administrative court.

Will family care capital be granted for children born before 1 January 2022?

Yes. According to the legislation, the right to family care capital will also be held by parents who already have the second and subsequent children aged 12-35 months on the day on which the Act enters into force. For such children, family care capital will be granted on a pro rata basis for the period from the date of entry of the Act into force until the end of the month preceding the month in which the second or subsequent child turns 36 months old.