According to the announcements, the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy has prepared a draft act on the provision of "Good start", that is, family support paid once a year for the purchase of a school layette, in the amount of PLN 300 per child – regardless of income.

– We care about building a stable and long-term family policy. The statutory authorization of the "Good Start" benefit is an important element of this process. It will also ensure the stabilization of the benefit and give greater certainty as to its continuous functioning – explains Minister Elżbieta Rafalska. Until now, the benefit has been regulated by a resolution and regulation of the Council of Ministers, however will be repealed soon.

This year, as in the previous year, the parents and guardians of children up to the age of 20 (in the case of children with disabilities – up to 24 years of age) will be able to apply for a school layette from July 1 via e-mail, and from August 1 – in a standard way. The changes are going to appear in 2020 – then applications can be submitted online from February 1, and in paper form - from April 1. As today, parents and guardians will have time until the end of November.

What else will change? - The project assumes, among others, the extension of the definition of "school" to schools for adults. What is important, the age frames, i.e. 20 and 24 years of age respectively, will remain unchanged.

However, this is not all. The Ministry also an increase in the amount of income criterion entitling to benefits from the alimony fund to PLN 900 from October 2020 (today it is PLN 725, and from October 1, 2019 – PLN 800), extension of the untaxed income catalogue making up family income entitling to various types of income benefits, as well as allowing municipalities to independently obtain tax data from the Ministry of Finance.

In 2018, namely in the first year of the operation of the programme, a total of 4,353,267 "Good Start" benefits were paid out. Last year, the program cost PLN 1,305,679,432.00. According to estimates, in 2019, the program will cost PLN 1.442 billion.