Municipalities Struggle with an Aging Society as NIK Report Exposes Care Gaps

A new Supreme Audit Office report reveals that rural and urban-rural municipalities in Poland fail to adequately identify and support a rapidly growing elderly population.

Senior Policy Department Faces Reality

The Senior Policy Department within the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy actively strives to improve the quality of life for the oldest segment of society. However, as a published Supreme Audit Office (NIK) report shows, the living realities of seniors, especially in rural and urban-rural municipalities, leave much to be desired.

Will support programs implemented for several years, new care service standards, and the senior voucher solve these problems?

Supreme Audit Office Report on Elderly Care

At the end of July, the Supreme Audit Office published a report concerning the care of elderly people in rural and urban-rural municipalities. NIK emphasized that a clear increase in the share of older people is visible in the country’s population. In the last ten years, the share of seniors has risen from 17.2 percent to 26.6 percent across Poland, and in 2060 it is projected to reach 38.3 percent. Additionally, citing PolSenior research, NIK noted a visible dependence on the help of others among seniors aged over 80.

The audit regarding older people covered primarily rural and urban-rural municipalities because it is in these areas that relatively the most seniors need support. Communication exclusion, uneven distribution of social infrastructure, lack of needs identification, and failure to evaluate the effects of undertaken actions are just some of the problems faced by those needing help and the municipalities.

Government Senior Support Programs

The care of seniors belongs to the own tasks of municipalities, which implement government-initiated programs supporting the oldest members of society. The most important of these include the senior voucher, the “Care 75+” program, and the “Senior Support Corps” program.

The senior voucher is a newly adopted solution providing support for seniors in meeting their basic daily living needs. This benefit does not amount to financial help, but rather to the financing of care services. People who are at least 65 years old, have unmet needs in basic daily life activities, are Polish citizens or citizens of specified countries in regulations, and additionally meet the income criterion (average monthly income per family member does not exceed PLN 3,410 in the three months preceding application) can use the senior voucher.

The “Care 75+” program aims to increase the availability of care services for people over 75 years of age who are additionally single or manage households alone. Implementation of the program amounts to financing up to 60 percent of the projected costs for tasks specified in detail by municipalities. In practice, help for seniors consists of support in daily activities, personal hygiene maintenance, running official errands, or doctor visits.

The “Senior Support Corps” program assumes help for all people over 60 years of age who have problems with independent functioning due to their health condition. Within the program, municipalities can count on support of up to 80 percent of expenditures related to organizing direct care services provided to those in need and so-called remote care.

The conclusions resulting from the NIK report are not optimistic. Above all, it emphasized that social welfare centers concentrated primarily on seniors already covered by help, failing to reach other people who might require support. In none of the audited municipalities was a system developed to identify lonely elderly people, and information about seniors requiring help was received from family or neighbors.

Devastating Conclusions from the NIK Report

In most of the audited municipalities, the lack of a senior policy adapted to local needs was also a problem. Solving the matters of the oldest part of society within general problem-solving strategies may not yield good effects in the long run. At the observatory time, it was observed that helping seniors in their place of residence is currently the most desired way of implementing support for those in need.

NIK also drew attention to imprecise documentation of care services, lack of formal monitoring of support, delays in financing government programs, and sometimes even failure by municipalities to hire required specialists.

All conclusions were forwarded to the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Policy and the Head of the Chancellery of the Prime Minister. Will the senior voucher and the continuation of the “Care 75+” and “Senior Support Corps” programs bring intended results? Time will tell.