Maintaining Poland's retirement age at current levels (60 for women and 65 for men) will cause billions of losses to the country’s budget and result in dwindling pensions and fewer jobs in the future, warn experts from the Institute for Structural Research (IBS).

IBS researchers have carried out detailed calculations to estimate the cost of Poland's low average retirement age. According to the report, the future pension of a woman who is 30 years old today will be zł.1,000 lower than it would be if the government were to introduce reforms, reports Dziennik Gazeta Prawna.

If nothing is done, by 2030, the country’s budget will shrink by nearly zł.20 billion per year. Currently, the average Pole works for half of his life. Only 12 percent of Polish women aged 60-64 are professionally active. That is three to four times less than in many European countries. The authors of the report warn that there is no social security system that could handle such disproportions.

IBS expects that if the current system is maintained, a 60-year-old woman born in 1981 will receive a retirement pension equaling just 18% of her last salary, meaning she would receive some zł.1,600. Raising the retirement age would increase her pension to about zł.2,700.

The IBS report was presented to President Bronisław Komorowski.

Poland AM