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also by a small payment—averaging 3% of the total—levied on the individual worker. These contributions were funneled into the newly created Pension Fund subordinate to the Social Insurance Administration. Since 1968 the receipts and expenditures of the Pension Fund have not been included in total outlays for social security published in the state budget; they are handled separately on the ground that the pension system is administered and financed by "non-governmental" agencies, i.e., the trade unions in conjunction with the Social Insurance Administration.
Pension benefits are graded by category of employment, age, length of service, and possible disability. On the average, however, an employee is entitled to retirement benefits after 25 years of employment and at age 65 (after 20 years and at age 60 for women). Benefits range from 60% of the last year's earnings to 100% in the case of severe disability. The impact of the pension reform begun in 1968 and completed in early 1970 was most marked on the lowest categories of pensions. As a result, average pensions rose from the equivalent of about 38% of the average gross industrial wage in 1965 to 62% in 1970 before the increases implemented by Gierek. Maternity benefits include prenatal and postnatal care. Cash benefits during time of illness average about 70% of the basic wage or salary, excluding premiums and bonuses, and are paid on a daily basis. Family allowances are graded by number of children in the family and the family's per capita income. One-time cash funeral benefits generally equal the average monthly wage in industry.
The increased benefits instituted by the new government in December 1970 in the area of pensions hinged on an increase of the minimum old-age and disability pensions by about 15%, i.e., to 960 zlotys (equivalent of US$44 at the non-commercial rate of US$1 = 22 zlotys[1]) for old-age pensions, and to a range of 1,210 to 1,810 zlotys per month for disability. Pensions higher than the minimum were also raised on a sliding scale. By January 1971, the average old-age pension payment was 1,615 zlotys per month, and average disability pension stood at 1,043 zlotys.
Family allowances and sickness benefits (payments made to the insured while hospitalized or convalescing, not intended to cover the rose of medical care which is free) were also raised, with the largest benefits going to families with a per capita income of less than 1,000 zlotys per month. Family allowances in 1971 ranged from 110 zlotys per month for a family with one child to 450 zlotys to a family with four children, with 210 zlotys per month for each additional child. In 1972 proposals were made for an additional liberalization of cash payments during time of illness; the average such payment in 1971 was 52 zlotys per day of hospitalization.
In addition to the social insurance programs, public welfare services include a system of nurseries for young children of working mothers and institutional as well as non institutional care of mothers and their children up to the age of 3 years. Nurseries and other institutions and programs such as old-age and nursing homes, rehabilitation centers, and workers' recreation resorts are administered by the trade unions in cooperation with individual enterprises and local government organs. Other public welfare services, such as social work with adolescents and aid to indigent adults, are limited in resources and generally available only in urban areas. The rising incidence of juvenile delinquency in the postwar period is still considered generally a matter for the police, the courts, and the corrective institutions on the one hand, and for ideological indoctrination by mass youth organizations on the other. Until the advent of the Gierek regime, official denial of the existence of social and economic frictions under socialism precluded the development of social work in the Western sense. Although the new regime has not taken concrete steps in this direction, discussions concerning the possible need for such an effort—within the context of existing institutions—have been underway in professional circles concerned with social problems.
Some private and semiprivate activity in the sector of public welfare still exists in Poland, unlike most other Communist counties, but government policies limit its scope. Despite economic, political, and other pressures exerted by the Gomulka regime on the activities of the Roman Catholic Church on the parish level, the church continues to operate a significant number of welfare institutions. According to church sources, in 1966 these included 160 institutions described as hospitals, 31 orphanages, 61 old-age homes, and more than 220 special institutions of various kinds for children and adults. In view of the significantly improved church-state relations since December 1970, it is likely that the church may expand somewhat the scope of its work in this area.
Several independent agencies dating from the immediate postwar period also continue to operate, but they are under full government control. Among these are Caritas, formerly the main Roman Catholic welfare agency, and the League of Women and the
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- ↑ U.S. dollar equivalents in this section are calculated at this rate because of 1970 data. In February 1973, as a result of U.S. dollar devaluation, the new rate became US$1 = 19.92 zlotys.
