Rights and obligations of an unemployed - Wortal Publicznych Służb Zatrudnienia

As an unemployed, you are entitled to:

1. register in a competent Poviat Labour Office, having presented the required documents;
2. receive an unemployment benefit if you meet the statutory conditions of its acquisition;
3. use the labour market services free of charge, including: employment services in Poland and abroad and career counselling organised in Poviat and Voivodeship Labour Offices;
4. be referred to entities, communes, employers, entrepreneurs for subsidized employment, e.g. within intervention works, public works, socially useful works, grant for teleworking, reemployment benefit following a break connected with raising a child or taking care of a dependant;
5. apply for:
   • reimbursed costs of travel and accommodation;
   • funds for initiating a business activity, founding or joining a social cooperative;
   • reemployment benefit (refers to the unemployed eligible to receive the unemployment benefit);
   • reimbursed costs of taking care of every child below 7;
   • employment voucher for an unemployed below 30 years old;
   • occupancy voucher for an unemployed below 30 years old;
   • participation in training funded under the Labour Fund;
   • participation in vocational training of adults;
   • traineeship;
   • grant for continued education;
   • co-funding of the post-graduate university courses;
   • reimbursement of the costs of exams and licences;
   • training loan
   • loan for the business activity start;
   • training voucher for an unemployed below 30;
   • traineeship voucher for an unemployed below 30 years old;
6. health insurance, unless you are subject to health insurance on other grounds, including farmers' insurance in the Agricultural Social Insurance Fund or receiving survivor's pension.

Obligations of an unemployed

1. visiting a competent Poviat Labour Office on appointed dates to receive an appropriate job proposal, other form of support proposed by the Office or for any purpose resulting from the Act and specified by the Labour Office, including to confirm your readiness to commence employment;
2. notifying the Poviat Labour Office, within 7 days, of justified cause of your failure to visit the Office on the appointed day;
3. receiving an appropriate job proposal or other form of support stipulated in the Act;
4. undergoing medical or psychological examination aimed at determining your capacity for work or participation in any other form of support stipulated in the Act;
5. submitting a medical certificate*
   to the Poviat Labour Office * if you, as an unemployed, remain incapable of work due to a disease or stay in an addiction treatment centre for a continued period of 90 days, the continued period, including also periods when you are incapable of work due to a disease or stay in an addiction treatment centre in a situation when every subsequent break between the periods of incapacity for work is less than 30 calendar days; you will be deprived of the unemployed status after the lapse of the last day of the said 90-day period;
6. notifying the Poviat Labour Office, within 7 days, of commencing employment, other paid work (contract of mandate, contract for specific work), regardless of the remuneration amount, or of submitting an application for entry in the Central Registration and Information on Business and of the occurrence of any other circumstances resulting in losing the unemployed status or loss of the entitlement to a benefit (e.g. earning a monthly revenue on other grounds in the amount exceeding one half of the minimum remuneration for work taxable with a personal income tax). The failure to notify of that fact is subject to a fine;
7. notifying the competent Poviat Labour Office of any change of the place of permanent abode or residence and contacting the Poviat Labour Office competent for the new place of residence within 14 days after the place of residence was changed;
8. notifying the Office of staying abroad or other situation resulting in the absence of readiness to commence employment (that period cannot exceed 10 days in a given calendar year altogether);
9. notifying the Poviat Labour Office of participating in the training without being referred to it by a starost, funded from public Community and national funds, organised by any entity other than the Office, within 7 days before the training starts;
10. when participating in the vocational training of adults, sitting a qualification, journeyman or verification exam;
11. participating in the activities within the Activation and Integration Programme, organised by the Poviat Labour Office, other entities commissioned by it or by a social welfare centre;
12. commencing and participating in training, traineeship, implementation of an individual action plan, performing socially useful works or other form of aid stipulated in the Act;
13. notifying the Labour Office of performing voluntary work or graduate traineeship and presenting an executed agreement or contract;
14. repaying the amount of an unduly received allowance (benefit, grant), including advance personal income tax payment and a social insurance contribution within 14 days after the decision has been delivered;
15. repaying the loan, including statutory interest if it is used for any purpose other than stipulated in the agreement or if you fail to start or complete the training;
16. repaying the amount for post-graduate course funding if you quit it for your own fault;
17. repaying the cost of training if it was not completed for the unemployed's fault, except for when the training was not completed because of commencing employment, other paid work or business activity;
18. repaying the costs of the vocational training of adults, except for when the programme of the vocational training of adults was interrupted or the qualification, journeyman or verification exam was not taken because of commencing employment, other paid work or business activity.