Deputy Head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Poland and Commissioner of the Polish Government for Refugees Pavel Shefernaker said that from July 1 the Polish government would no longer pay 40 zlotys a day (about 276 UAH as of June 1) for food and accommodation for Ukrainian refugees and counted on their employment and self-sufficiency.
“We are convinced that many people in Poland are able to become independent and adapt,” Schefernaker said, noting that there would be exceptions – for some refugees, benefits would be expanded, these were “disabled, pregnant women or large families”.
The report noted that the Polish government, in a special act on assistance to refugees from Ukraine, initially guaranteed the benefit for the first 60 days, and a month ago extended it for another 60 days, but there would be no more.
“We pay out huge social funds – from PLN 300 for each to PLN 500+ for each child, and other amounts arising from social benefits. In addition, we see that many Ukrainians are looking for work, finding it and coping with everything. We want to encourage others to be active. Four months of full protection is, in our opinion, a sufficient period,” a senior politician from the Law and Justice party, who was not named, said in a commentary to Rzeczpospolita.
Rzeczpospolita also notes that the government’s decision is dictated by very high costs for the maintenance of refugees. In particular, the Silesian Voivodeship estimated the current costs of 115 thousand refugees at PLN 190 million per month, of which daily payments of PLN 40 per person amount to PLN 160 million.
“We are just starting a wide range of measures aimed at activating Ukrainians in employment. Already 14,000 of them, including 11,000 women, have found legal work in our region. We are waiting for a special act that will help finance Polish language education and refresher courses qualifications, which, of course, will help you find yourself in the labor market,” said the press secretary of the Silesian voivode Alina Kukharzhevskaya.
Mayor of Muszyna, Malopolska Voivodeship, Jan Golba noted that out of 1,300 refugees who once settled in the city, 400 now lived in it, of which only 60 people had found work so far.
“We hired a doctor, a dentist, nurses and kitchen assistants. It’s a lot and a little. Whoever wants to work will find a job. And who doesn’t want to, nothing will force him. If the government does not pay 40 they probably won’t make it,” he told the publication. (Open4Business/Business World Magazine)
