The Parliament passed the „Mama 4 Plus” law concerning so-called maternal pensions. The law stipulates that mothers who have given birth and raised at least four children will be entitled to a minimum pension. The benefit is to be paid from 1 March this year.

Still before the vote, the Minister of Family, Labour and Social Policy Elżbieta Rafalska argued that the proposed regulation is an „honorary solution that promotes parenthood”.

You are talking here today about discrimination against fathers, and I am calling for, and this motion is calling for justice for the mothers who have brought up many children, who may be 70 years old today, and due to the system which was in force before, they sometimes do not have the right to the lowest benefit.

— said the head of the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy.

It’s a good regulation. You hadn’t done it before, so please support what we have prepared.

— added Rafalska, addressing the opposition MPs.

The adoption of the Act on Parental Supplementary Benefit was supported by 259 MPs, 20 voted against and 134 abstained from voting.

MPs rejected the opposition amendments which, among other things, provided for the right to a supplementary allowance also for fathers who had not attained a minimum pension because they had given up work in favour of caring for at least four children. Under the law, a father is only entitled to a benefit if the mother has left the family or died.

During debate on the bill, Deputy Prime Minister of the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy Marcin Zieleniecki reminded that the „Mama 4 Plus” programme is the implementation of the Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki’s promise, who in April last year spoke about the need to create a system of benefits addressed to mothers who have given birth and raised at least four children and have not attained a pension financed by the social security system. Zieleniecki said that the current lack of benefits for this group of mothers is „a highly unsatisfactory, if not scandalous situation”.

During the debate, members of the Law and Justice (PiS) party insisted that the proposed solutions „emphasize the important social function that the parents, mostly women, raising children play for the development of the country”.

The proposed regulations are designed to recognise the upbringing effort of parents in families with many children and will provide them with necessary living resources after reaching a certain age.

— said Law and Justice MP, Anita Czerwińska.

On the other hand, members of the opposition criticised the proposed solutions for - in their opinion - violation of the constitutional principle of equality and discrimination against fathers. Magdalena Kochan from the Civic Platform (PO) estimated that it is unfair that a father has the right to a benefit only when the mother leaves the family or dies. On behalf of the club, she also proposed that the mothers who worked should also receive an additional benefit. According to Monika Rosa (N), the proposed solution is „a signal to women to withdraw from the labour market”.

Mothers who have reached retirement age of 60 will be able to apply for a benefit under the „Mama 4 Plus” programme. Fathers of four children after the age of 65 will also be entitled to the benefit in the situation of the mother’s death or abandonment of her children.

The so-called maternal pensions are to be paid from 1 March 2019. As a rule, parental supplementary benefit may be granted by the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) or the Agricultural Social Insurance Fund (Kasa Rolniczego Ubezpieczenia Społecznego) at the request of the person concerned (mother or father) as an administrative decision, after examining, inter alia, the income situation of the person concerned. The benefit will be granted in the amount of the lowest pension. After the March indexation, the minimum pension will amount to PLN 1100 gross.