Ukrainians contribute significantly more to Poland’s treasury than they get back

He proposes to withdraw the additional payment for Ukrainian children under 18, which amounts to PLN 800 per month. The restriction should apply to children whose parents are unemployed and, therefore, do not pay social security contributions.

Ukrainian refugees who are not working should also lose their right to medical care.

Nawrocki justifies his decision by saying that “the rights of Poles to assistance and care cannot be less than the rights of foreigners.” According to him, “Poland should be for Poles” — the owners of their country — and not give privileges to guests.

It seems that facts are irrelevant today.

According to statistics, 70% of Ukrainian refugees of working age in Poland have jobs, 90% of whom are women. Their contribution to Poland's GDP is 2.7%, and they pay over PLN 15 billion in taxes to the state budget each year. Meanwhile, payments of 800 PLN per child of Ukrainian refugees amount to only 2.4 billion PLN.

Therefore, Ukrainians contribute significantly more to the Polish state treasury than they receive from it.

This spring, there was already a discussion in Poland about abolishing the 800+ payments for Ukrainian children. In addition to economic arguments, the participants also drew attention to other circumstances.

Many Ukrainian women do not work for various reasons: some are raising two or three young children alone and cannot find a job, especially in small towns where legal employment is scarce, so they are forced to work "off the books." Others have husbands fighting on the front and want to ensure their families are safe.

Lawyers and human rights advocates emphasize that canceling the 800+ benefit for children of Ukrainian war refugees would be a serious violation of international and European law, as well as refugee protection principles, since the payment is for the children, not their parents. Polish law guarantees support for all children legally in the country.

This appears to be a populist move, and there is hope that the Polish parliament will not allow such a blatant breach of Polish and European law.

Source

 About the author. Mykola Kniazhytskyi, journalist, Ukrainian MP 

The editorial team does not always share the opinions expressed by the blog or column authors.