On January 1st 2017, an amendment to the Act on the Pole’s Card entered into force. The new law granted holders of a Pole’s Card settling in Poland the possibility of obtaining cash benefits for partial payment of the costs of living in Poland.
The benefit was established in the amount of 50% of the minimum wage (2,000 PLN gross in 2017) during the first 3 months and 60% of the minimum wage in the subsequent period (4th to 9th month). The Ministry of Interior announced the suspension of examination of applications for granting the cash benefits after March 2017 due to exhaustion of the amount planned for this purpose in the budget. In September 2017 it was decided to increase this amount, so that benefits could be paid to those who submitted the appropriate applications after September 11, 2017 and these applications may be processed.