Faster and Easier Route to ZUS Rehabilitation Benefit Starting in 2027

Starting in 2027, upcoming legislative changes will streamline the ZUS rehabilitation benefit process with strict 30-day deadlines and mandatory electronic rulings for individuals unable to work.

A Faster and Easier Path to the ZUS Rehabilitation Benefit from 2027. How to Obtain the Benefit?

The rehabilitation benefit is support for individuals who, despite the expiration of 182 days of sickness allowance, have not yet recovered the strength to return to work. Obtaining it requires going through an adjudication procedure at ZUS before a medical examiner, which can be time-consuming. Will the changes announced for 2027 effectively shorten it?

What is the rehabilitation benefit and who is entitled to it?

The rehabilitation benefit is one of the monetary benefits entitled to an insured person after exhausting the sickness allowance who is still incapable of work. The condition for receiving support is that further treatment or medical rehabilitation holds a prognosis for recovering the ability to work. This is precisely why the care benefit is granted for the period necessary to restore such ability, but for no longer than 12 months.

Insurance may arise from the title of:

• being an employee;

• performing outwork;

• being a member of an agricultural production cooperative or agricultural circle cooperative;

• work based on a referral to work during the execution of a penalty of deprivation of liberty or temporary arrest;

• work based on an agency agreement, mandate agreement, or another service provision agreement;

• running a business activity;

• being a clergy member;

• serving alternative service.

However, if a person is entitled to a retirement pension or a disability pension due to inability to work, unemployment benefit, pre-retirement benefit, pre-retirement allowance, parental supplementary benefit, teacher’s compensation benefit, or health recovery leave, then despite meeting the premise of inability to work and having insurance, they are not entitled to the rehabilitation benefit.

Amount of the rehabilitation benefit

The amount of the rehabilitation benefit has been determined as a percentage. It amounts to:

• 90 percent of the sickness allowance assessment base for the first three months of the benefit;

• 75 percent of the sickness allowance assessment base in the remaining months.

However, if the inability to work falls within the period of pregnancy, the rehabilitation benefit is paid for the entire period at 100 percent of the sickness allowance assessment base.

How to receive the rehabilitation benefit?

To receive the rehabilitation benefit, one must not only meet the requirements specified in regulations but also submit an appropriate application (form ZNp-7) at least six weeks before the end of the sickness allowance collection period. The rehabilitation benefit is not granted automatically.

The claim for the allocation of the benefit expires after six months from the last day of the period for which this support can be granted. Therefore, the application for the rehabilitation benefit can be submitted no later than 18 months from the day of finishing the collection of the sickness allowance. However, if an obstacle occurred that prevented submitting the claim, e.g., the person applying for support stayed in a hospital, the application can be submitted within six months from the cessation of this cause.

Importantly, ZUS has 30 days to examine the application, but this deadline is counted from the date of establishing the last circumstance in the case by the authority.

What changes are coming in the adjudication of ZUS rehabilitation benefits from 2027?

The basis for granting the rehabilitation benefit is the finding by a ZUS medical examiner of the existence of the inability to work despite the cessation of the sickness allowance, with a simultaneous prognosis of its recovery. However, current regulations do not specify within what deadline he should make a decision, and taking into account staff shortages and the appeal path available to the insured, such proceedings often drag on for months.

The solution to the problem is to be the amendment to the provisions of the social security system act entering into force on January 1, 2027. It assumes that in cases commissioned to ZUS, the ruling is issued within 30 days from the day of initiating the proceedings for issuing a ruling, and in the case of its exceeding, the interested person may file a reminder.

An important change accelerating the issuance of relevant rulings by ZUS is also to be the use of the ICT system. From January 2027, rulings will take the form of electronic documents bearing a qualified electronic signature, a qualified electronic seal, a trusted signature, a personal signature, or using a method of confirming the origin and integrity of data available in the system made available by ZUS.

Importantly, rulings will be delivered to interested persons and authorized entities, as a rule, in electronic form. Only when this is not possible or the interested person explicitly requests it, the ruling will be delivered in the form of a printout.

Legal basis

Act of January 12, 2026, amending the Act on the Social Security System and Certain Other Acts, Journal of Laws 2026 item 26

Act of October 13, 1998, on the Social Security System, Journal of Laws 1998 no. 137 item 887

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