800 Plus Without Annual Applications: Govt to Review Draft Bill

On Tuesday, October 20, 2026, the government will examine a draft amendment to the Act on State Aid in Raising Children. Prepared by the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy, the regulations introduce the automatic renewal of entitlement to 800 Plus without the need to submit annual applications. The new rules will come into effect on June 1, 2027, along with the start of the 2027–2028 benefit period.

Automatic Renewal Instead of an Annual Form

From June 1, 2027, the Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) will automatically extend the right to the benefit for the subsequent period. Officials will utilize data previously submitted by parents. Until that date, beneficiaries remain subject to existing procedures and the requirement to complete the formalities annually.

If a family's circumstances do not change, payments will continue without any intervention from parents. At the same time, the project guarantees the ability to update information in the system upon the birth of another child or other changes within the family.

Situations Requiring an Application

The automation will not cover all cases. The traditional application process will be maintained in situations where ZUS does not yet possess current information about a child.

Submitting a new application will remain necessary, among others:
- after the birth of a child,
- upon the return of parents with a child from abroad.

In these cases, the Social Insurance Institution will not update entitlements automatically, and the disbursement of funds will require a submission by a guardian.

Current Custody and Program Scale

The draft also clarifies the catalog of individuals entitled to receive monthly payments. In line with a proposal by the Children's Ombudsman, the benefit will be granted to individuals entrusted by a court with so-called day-to-day care (current custody) of a minor.

The structure of the program remains unchanged: it provides PLN 800 per month for each child up to the age of 18, regardless of family income. In the justification for the amendments, the Ministry of Family cited data from the call for applications opened on February 1, 2025, which served as a reference point for estimating the scale of the undertaking during the drafting of the bill. At that time, ZUS received 4,869,000 applications covering more than 7,415,000 children.

Sources

Article prepared with the help of artificial intelligence based on: Bankier.pl, Rzeczpospolita, Zero.pl. Facts checked automatically against these sources. The Wiadomości PRO newsroom is responsible for this publication.