Year by year, the Poles increasingly use electronic services, also when dealing with official matters. Only in the last 3 years, the percentage of electronically submitted applications for the “Good Start” benefit has increased from 48% in 2018 to 72% in 2020. The last year and the time of the pandemic have resulted in the additional increase in using this way of communication with offices. Therefore, in order to improve the process of handling the benefits, the Ministry of Family and Social Policy decided to make the submission of applications for the benefit fully electronic, by excluding paper circulation of documents and using, as the only one, form of its payment to the bank account.

- We want to build a digital Poland, and as we can see, the Poles are ready for it. Parents are already experienced in submitting online applications. They use the Tourist Voucher programme only in this way. The vast majority of them apply electronically for the Family 500+ benefit and more and more of them apply for the Large Family Card – said the Minister of Family and Social Policy, Marlena Maląg and added – PLN 300 for school supplies is a support for parents of each schoolchild. We also took care to ensure that persons who are less active online receive full assistance in completing the application by electronic means.

Digital support provided

Persons who would like to make use of support in submitting an online application will receive assistance from the Social Insurance Institution, which, in order to secure adequate facilities even in smaller locations, has concluded an agreement in this respect for cooperation with Poczta Polska and KRUS.

Parents who have so far received the benefit in cash, collected at the commune or in the form of a postal order will be required to provide the bank account number to which the funds should be sent. 

As shown by the data of the National Bank of Poland as of December 2020, the Poles are one of the more bank-oriented countries of Europe. Only in the last year examined – 2019, the number of bank accounts per capita was 2.0 and was higher than the average for the European Union and for the eurozone, whose average in 2019 was 1.6 per capita. It is worth stressing that this ratio has been growing steadily since 2006, whereas the trends for the EU averages are not always upward.

The process of banking penetration is supported by the introduction of a special type of bank account – a Basic Payment Account. According to the Polish and EU law, banks and cooperative savings and credit unions (SKOK) are obliged to make it available to consumers free of charge. This is a solution developed for all citizens, especially for those with low income, for whom even several or more PLN of a monthly account maintenance fee is a considerable expense, and they use their account to make several transfers or to withdraw funds from an ATM.

For almost ¾ of the Poles the “Good Start” programme remains unchanged

For parents, who have so far submitted applications for the benefit through electronic banking (the most popular form), PUE ZUS and the Empatia system, the change will be invisible because from their perspective the submission of applications will take place exactly the same way.

Thanks to the “Good Start” programme, parents can afford more and better things

The benefit amounting to PLN 300 is available for a schoolchild aged 7-20, and in the case of children with disabilities – up to 24 years of age. There is no income threshold. In 2020, 4.4 million pupils were covered by the support under the “Good Start” programme. Since the beginning of its functioning, PLN 4.1 billion have been allocated for the benefits under the programme, about PLN 1.4 billion a year.

- We invest in Polish families consistently and on a long-term basis. This is the only way to ensure that more children are born in Poland. Therefore, also this year we want to relieve parents at the time of higher expenses, when purchasing school supplies – stressed the Head of the Ministry of Family.

When analysing the years 2015 and 2019, it can be seen that the refund for textbooks has undoubtedly contributed to decreasing the costs of school supplies for pupils. This decrease is not proportional to a decrease in the value of school supplies (48% decrease in expenses for textbooks when compared to a 7% decrease in the costs of school supplies). There was an increase on expenses for stationery (19% increase) as well as for other stationery, painting and drawing products (30% increase). The cumulative inflation rate for the group covering these expenses was 3.4% from 2015 to 2019. According to the evolution of expenses for the above-mentioned products, it can be concluded that currently families can afford school supplies of better quality than 4 years ago.

Expenses for children’s clothes (82%) and children’s footwear (90%) also increased significantly. The increase in expenses is not justified by inflation. Parents buy better-quality school clothes and footwear for their children. The increase in expenses for these goods is almost double, while the cumulative inflation rate for children’s clothes in the years 2015-2019 is 0.4%, while for footwear -2.8%.

What should be emphasised as a very positive aspect, is the fact that expenses for private lessons for pupils increased, on average, twice in 2019 when compared to 2015. This means that families now have funds to spend them in this way. Here, we should appreciate the role and impact of government programmes such as the “Good Start” and “Family 500+”.

In 2019, the “Good Start” programme funded 66% of the cost of average school supplies. The year before, this rate was 79%. This shows not the reduced effectiveness of the “Good Start” programme, but the total effect of action of family-oriented programmes, thanks to which parents can afford a better-quality basket of articles forming school supplies.

Automation = budget and time savings

The proposed changes will result in a substantial reduction in the costs of service and assume that they will be maintained at the level of 0.1% of the amount allocated for payment of benefits. It is estimated that in the period 2021-2031, the total costs of service will amount to about PLN 15 million, which means savings for the state budget at the level of about PLN 488 million.

- Experience with the Polish Tourist Voucher, which has been handled electronically from the very start, showed that this could be done efficiently – said the President of the Social Insurance Institution, Prof. Gertruda Uścińska.

In addition, the effect of full synergy will be achieved thanks to the acquisition of full system support by ZUS and full process automation. All data will be transferred to a single IT system, where they will be automatically cross-checked in various administrative databases, such as EKSMOON, SIO and PESEL. This will significantly accelerate the issuance of decisions on granting the benefit.

How to submit the application as from 1 July?

As in previous years, all parents can submit online applications as from 1 July: 

through the EMP@tia information and service portal

through electronic banking

through the PUE ZUS portal.

Applications must be submitted by 30 November. Submission of the application by the end of August guarantees payment of the benefit no later than by 30 September. When the application is submitted in the following months (September, October or November), the funds will be received by the family within 2 months from submitting the application.