The rules for retired uniformed personnel apply to representatives of various formations, including military, but also police officers, firefighters, Border Guard, and special services. All those who started service before December 31, 2012 can retire after 15 years of service. For those who started after January 1, 2013, receiving a pension is possible only after 25 years of service. In both cases, the uniformed pension is significantly higher than that offered by the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS).
Uniformed personnel can expect higher benefits
One of the most important differences, besides when one can retire as a civilian or uniformed, is that uniformed services do not deduct social insurance contributions from salaries, i.e., pension, disability, and sickness contributions. As a result, the salary of a uniformed officer, which goes into their account, is proportionally higher than that of a civilian, from whom part of the money is taken for contributions.
Uniformed personnel can also expect much higher benefits, which are on average twice as high as those offered by ZUS. What is the pension amount after 15 years of service? A uniformed officer can expect 40% of the base amount at that time. For each additional year, 2.6% is added. The maximum benefit can reach 75% of the base amount. In practice, this means that the average military pension – as reported by Money.pl – is about 6.4 thousand PLN gross in Poland, which means it is almost 100% higher than the benefit paid under the universal pension system. Of course, the longer a uniformed officer stays in service, the higher the benefit they can expect. This also depends on the type of service and the rank achieved during it. A striking example from recent months is Urszula Brzezińska‑Hołownia, wife of former Sejm Marshal Szymon Hołowni, who decided at the beginning of the year to retire, becoming one of 830 soldiers who made a similar decision. According to Fakt, citing data from the Ministry of National Defence, Szymon Hołowni’s wife can expect a pension of about 10.2 thousand PLN gross. That is not a very high pension for military conditions. It is also worth noting what Urszula Brzezińska‑Hołownia did in the army and to what rank she reached. She finished her service as a captain. In the army she was a pilot, flying, among others, on MIGs.
Uniformed personnel with double pension?
Currently, uniformed personnel receive only a military pension, even when after 15 years of service they take a job in the civilian sector, from which contributions are deducted. The civilian pension is withheld unless its amount exceeds the military pension. In that case, the uniformed person receives the ZUS benefit instead of the military one. This, however, as one can guess, is a rare case. Soon this may change. According to Głos Szczecina, the Ministry of National Defence is working on a solution that will allow military personnel to receive two pensions in the future, both the military pension and the ZUS benefit, if after 15 or 25 years of service a soldier decides to move to the civilian sector and continue working, from which contributions are deducted. If they can accumulate enough to be entitled to a ZUS pension, then they can simultaneously receive both benefits, regardless of their amount.
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