What does the change entail?
Any employee can request from their employer an application to add to their work experience another professional activity other than employment under an employment contract. However, the regulations do not concern pension experience, nor do they affect the right to a pension or its calculation method.
The Labor Code precisely specifies which periods can be counted towards work experience, provided that the applicant obtains the appropriate certificate from ZUS. The Social Insurance Institution has 7 days to process such an application, and it is handled very efficiently. Over 1 million applications have already been issued.
Periods that can be counted are those when the person:
- Paid contributions for pension and disability insurance or accident insurance as a person conducting non-agricultural activity or cooperating with a person conducting such activity,
- Was covered by pension and disability insurance, for the following reasons:
- An assignment contract or another service contract, to which, according to the Civil Code, the assignment provisions apply,
- An agency contract, cooperation with a person performing an assignment contract, another service contract or an agency contract, remaining a member of a farming production cooperative,
- Remaining a member of a cooperative of farming circles,
- Was registered for health insurance as a person conducting business activity and not subject to pension and disability insurance for the first 6 months of operating the activity (the so‑called start‑up relief),
- Paid contributions for pension and disability or accident insurance as a person cooperating with a person conducting business activity (mentioned in point 3),
- Had contributions for pension and disability insurance financed for personal childcare during a period of business activity suspension,
- Had contributions for pension and disability insurance financed for personal childcare as a cooperating person.
Application for a certificate and ZUS response
The application for a certificate can only be submitted electronically using an account in the Institute’s teleinformation system (eZUS). From January 1, 2026, the eZUS system offers the “Application for issuing a certificate of insurance for the purpose of adding periods to work experience” – USP. We added a new tile in the sidebar menu that leads directly to the USP application form. This makes finding and submitting the correct application more convenient and faster.
When the USP response appears in the eZUS account, the insured or their representative receives a notification. If they have notifications enabled, they will receive an SMS, email, or a notification in the mZUS mobile app – according to the preferences set in Settings → Subscription Settings. If the person expecting a response does not have such settings, they should regularly log into eZUS and check whether the decision or certificate is already waiting there. We encourage activating notifications to stay up to date with new documents. – as stated in the official ZUS communication
