Radio Poland, January 31, 2019

Polish lawmakers have approved a government plan to pay special minimum pensions to mothers of four or more children.

The measure passed in a 259-20 vote with 134 abstentions in the lower house of parliament in the early hours of Thursday, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.

The legislation now goes to the Senate, the upper house of Poland’s parliament, for further debate.

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told a news conference last week that his government’s new “Mom 4-plus” programme aimed to benefit “mothers and grandmothers who have devoted their lives to bringing up children” and deserved “gratitude and respect” from society and state authorities.

Elżbieta Rafalska, the minister for family, labour and social policy, told reporters that the government’s new social assistance programme was designed to solve the problem of women who have given birth to and raised at least four children but have not acquired the right to a minimum state pension.

The new “maternal pensions,” to be offered beginning March 1, are expected to benefit nearly 90,000 citizens, according to Rafalska.

They will be paid out to women who have reached the retirement age of 60, the IAR news agency has reported.

The government plans to spend about PLN 11 billion (EUR 2.57 billion, USD 2.92 billion) on the new maternal benefits over the next 10 years, according to the news agency.

This year more than PLN 800 million has been set aside for this purpose, IAR reported.