The Council of Ministers adopted a total of four programmes under which almost 200,000 local government employees will be supported and receive incentive grants in the amount of PLN 1,000 gross in 2024-2027. These are workers in organic social assistance units, family support units and the foster care system, professional foster families and family orphanages, and workers employed in local government institutions who care for children up to 3 years of age.
Social service workers were divided over the new addition. It is only available to people who perform tasks under the Social Welfare Act and those who ensure the smooth running of the unit (e.g. people working in human resources or cleaning). However, it will not be available to substantive workers who perform tasks exclusively under other acts. It will not be awarded to those who work in Social Welfare Centres but perform tasks, for example, in the field of family benefits or the Food Fund.
Since the beginning of the dispute, the Ministry has emphasized that To carry out these tasks, local governments receive a subsidy from the state budget for service costs.which amounts to 3%. received subsidies for family benefits. Employees emphasize, however, that due to the small amounts of these benefits, only some of them are self-financed. In most cases, service costs exceed this 3%.
The ministry’s argument is also that the solutions introduced are also a way of supporting local governments in their own tasks, so they will have money to increase the salaries of other local government employees – depending on the organizational structure established in a particular place. government and local needs.
In response to Agnieszka Maria Kłopotek’s question, Katarzyna Nowakowska, Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy, writes that “the appropriate space for discussion on financing the tasks performed by local government units seems to be the draft law on revenues of local government units currently processed by the Ministry of Territorial Finance (…), the aim of which is to build a new system of financing tasks performed by local governments.
The Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy has initiated analyses regarding the introduction of systemic changes in areas such as social assistance and the family benefit system. They also concern the issue of remuneration of employees hired to perform these tasks, which will be conducted and consulted with the participation of the local government. A Social Security System Reform Team has also been established, which aims to develop systemic solutions with regard to support for social welfare workers, including on issues related to their remuneration and other aspects of their work.
– In our opinion, although such changes are not foreseen, we consider them necessary and hope that the ministry will correct its position here. Of course, this concerns the workers who were omitted, but it is also the norm that every legal act requires a review of how the newly applicable regulations work in practice. There is always something to improve in their use. As for the exclusion of some employees of welfare units from the allowance – with a little goodwill and without changing the regulations, they could also receive an allowance. Changes in decisions and guidelines are necessary, says Paweł Maczyński, President of the Polish Federation of Social Workers and Social Welfare.
