The Government Saves Money on Nannies
New regulations on childcare services for children under the age of 3 in Poland came into force on 1st January as a result of the Act of 7th July 2017, which amended acts related to the Polish family support system. Among the many changes introduced by the new law, parents who employ a nanny will be among the most affected. Indeed, according to the new law, the government’s subsidy to the social insurance of nannies will be reduced by half, shifting the burden to parents for the social insurance of the nannies that they hire.
Before 2018, the government fully subsidized the social insurance of nannies in Poland on the condition that they were hired on the basis of an activation agreement (umowa uaktywniająca), registered in the Polish Social Insurance Institution (Zakład Ubezpieczeń Społecznych), and that their remuneration did not exceed a pre-determined minimum salary (if it exceeded this minimum, parents would contribute insurance proportional to the excess salary). This regulation was part of the system reform introduced by the Act of 4th February 2011 on care for children under the age of 3, the rationale of which was to reduce the extent of shadow work of nannies. According to data CASE obtained from the Polish Social Insurance Institution, the number of registered nannies was around 8,376 at the end of 2016, and the estimated number of nannies was 400,000 (the total number of available nannies registered on the website niania.pl).
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