Depopulation of rural areas and the ageing of society are increasingly affecting the financial stability of Poland’s farmers’ pension system. The number of people insured with KRUS is falling, and pension payments require growing support from the state budget. The average farmers’ pension is currently around PLN 2,200—just over half of the average benefit paid by ZUS. KRUS warns that the system needs deep modernisation, as it is still based on a law enacted 35 years ago that no longer reflects the realities of today’s Polish countryside.
“The entire population is ageing, but we are also seeing a depopulation of rural Poland. Young people don’t want to remain on farms—they move to cities, and this directly affects the number of insured persons. These are young people who could replace their fathers or grandfathers and continue working, but generational replacement in rural areas is becoming increasingly rare. This affects the functioning and financing of the system: there are fewer insured individuals, and their contributions finance the pension system and benefit payments. As a result, the entire pension system must increasingly rely on state budget funding,”
— emphasises Arkadiusz Iwaniak, Deputy President of the Agricultural Social Insurance Fund (KRUS), in an interview with Newseria.
According to the report “Information on the Situation of Older Persons in Poland for 2024”, people aged 60+ accounted for 23.8% of the rural population at the end of last year. With fewer young people staying in agriculture, the number of KRUS-insured individuals continues to decline. At the end of Q2 2025, the number of pensioners and disability benefit recipients stood at approximately 961,000.
“Women in rural areas typically retire at an average age of 61. For men, the average retirement age is 65, meaning they do not extend their working period beyond what the law requires,”
— notes Iwaniak.
To qualify for a pension, women must reach the age of 60 and men 65, and must pay contributions for at least 25 years. According to KRUS Statistics Bureau data, farmers pay pension and disability insurance contributions for over 29 years before retiring (28 years for women and nearly 32 years for men).
The minimum monthly ZUS contribution is PLN 1,773.96, whereas in KRUS the rate depends on farm size. In Q4 2025, the monthly pension and disability contribution for a farmer, spouse, and household member is PLN 169 for farms up to 50 conversion hectares. Larger farms pay an additional monthly contribution amounting to 12–48% of the basic pension, depending on land area.
After the March indexation, the average ZUS pension exceeded PLN 4,000. Meanwhile, the average monthly KRUS pension at the end of Q2 2025 amounted to PLN 2,261.27. Last year, 97% of KRUS beneficiaries received the full “14th pension”.
“Pension benefits in both KRUS and ZUS are indexed and will continue to increase. We estimate that next year the average KRUS pension will rise to around PLN 2,300, but it will still lag behind ZUS benefits. This is directly linked to contribution levels. Although the situation improves slightly each year, the ratio of a KRUS pension to a ZUS pension remains around 50%,”
— says the KRUS deputy president.
Data from the Ministry of Finance and KRUS show that state budget subsidies to the farmers’ pension fund have for years amounted to at least several billion zlotys annually—illustrating the scale of public support needed for a system that requires fundamental reform. The current Farmers’ Social Insurance Act dates back to 1990 and does not reflect the major transformations that rural Poland has undergone over the past three decades, including EU accession and shifts in farm structures.
“We need to change this law so that we, as an institution, can better serve the insured and make more efficient use of our capabilities,”
— explains Iwaniak.
KRUS reports that one direction of reform will be increasing system flexibility so that farmers conducting non-agricultural business activity do not automatically lose the right to KRUS insurance after surpassing income thresholds. Plans also include simplifying eligibility rules, extending maternity leave, eliminating the requirement for in-person medical commission appointments, and expanding options for suspending pensions and disability benefits.
A major goal for KRUS is also expanding its network of rehabilitation centres for farmers.
“We want to increase the number of retired farmers using our rehabilitation facilities. This is a key issue for us. We also want greater engagement in rural areas, so that all those living in the countryside and insured through KRUS can, for example, take on contract work (umowa-zlecenie) without automatically losing their insurance coverage,”
— explains the KRUS representative.
KRUS also plans to clarify the rules governing the contribution fund to enable faster responses in crisis situations, such as natural disasters.
“We want the fund to allow us to immediately provide financial assistance to those most in need. We also want to source additional financing for the administrative fund so that KRUS is not constrained in this area and can allocate more resources to services and rehabilitation for retired farmers,”
— says Arkadiusz Iwaniak.
