Poland plans new restrictions on 800+ child benefit for foreigners
Displaced people from Ukraine in Poland (photo: Getty Images)
Poland plans to change the conditions for receiving the 800+ state benefit for foreigners, including Ukrainians. Payments will depend on parents' employment and the child's attendance at a Polish school, according to Deputy Minister of Interior and Administration Maciej Duszczyk in a statement to TVP Info.
What will change
The new conditions provide for the following:
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Every month the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) will automatically check whether the child's parents were economically active;
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If for at least one month they do not work, payments will be suspended;
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A mandatory condition will be the child's attendance at a Polish educational institution;
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An exception will be made for families with disabilities – they will receive assistance even without official employment.
When the new rules will take effect
The inspections will begin in February 2026. By that time, the government must adopt and publish the law.
According to Duszczyk, the new system will encourage foreigners to work legally. At the same time, in case of a failed vote, 800,000 foreigners may lose legal access to work in Poland already after October 1, which could cause chaos in the social and educational spheres.
The 800 Plus program is a monthly benefit of 800 zlotys received by families with children. The new rules will apply not only to Ukrainians but to all foreigners in Poland.
From February 1, 2026, a new electronic payment system for Ukrainian refugees will start operating in Poland. All benefit recipients will have to reapply online, indicating the child's place of education and their professional status. The current rules will remain in effect until the end of January 2026, and after the system is launched, the number of recipients may decrease by about 10%.
Poland has strengthened the deportation of foreigners. Since the beginning of the year, more than 1,100 people have been forcibly expelled from the country, including 15 Ukrainians. All of them received a ban on entry to Poland for 5–10 years. In total, there are already 31,000 foreigners on the register of undesirable persons, most of them citizens of Ukraine, Georgia, Syria, Afghanistan, Belarus, and Russia. The number of such persons is steadily growing every year.
