Red Tape Hot Box Disability benefits
Studies show that 14 percent of Poles are on disability benefits - about three times the European average. Which naturally means that the pool from which talented players may be drawn is much smaller here than abroad, and thus explains our failure to qualify for the European Championship, to be played in June.
Joking aside, although the numbers may suggest otherwise, Poland is not the "sick man of Europe" and there aren't that many more handicapped and disabled people here than anywhere else on this continent. A large number of these disability benefit claimants are in fact in perfectly good health. After the collapse of communism and following the introduction of a free-market economy, many people managed to obtain the necessary certificates that entitled them to draw disability benefits from the state. And to be honest, it wasn't even all that difficult to get the required document; all you needed was a friendly doctor (or one who could be "persuaded" by a sufficient sum). Since the early 90s, these disability benefits have been treated as a more effective form of unemployment benefit. One that represents a regular income and that cannot be taken away after three months, as is the case with unemployment benefit. Call it a safeguard against unemployment. Naturally, many individuals who never were hard workers have used this to obtain a free income, under the pretence of suffering, for example, from epilepsy. As a result, Poland has more pensioners and disability benefit claimants than any other EU country (including the new accession states). We spend four percent of our GNP on this funding, and are way ahead of our neighboring countries. Germany, with its welfare state (now slowly becoming a thing of the past), donates only 1.1 percent of its GNP to pensioners and disability benefit claimants. So which country has the better welfare state?
Luckily, the government has realized that Poland isn't rich enough to simply give away money, and has announced plans to conduct a verification of all claimants. That, of course, isn't a popular decision for the country's thousands of phony claimants who are cheating the state and all the honest tax-payers in this country. It's about time something was done with the system, which is simply unfair for those who clearly are handicapped, and who have to go through the humiliating process of examination every year in order to prove that they are indeed entitled to draw disability benefit.
Joking aside, although the numbers may suggest otherwise, Poland is not the "sick man of Europe" and there aren't that many more handicapped and disabled people here than anywhere else on this continent. A large number of these disability benefit claimants are in fact in perfectly good health. After the collapse of communism and following the introduction of a free-market economy, many people managed to obtain the necessary certificates that entitled them to draw disability benefits from the state. And to be honest, it wasn't even all that difficult to get the required document; all you needed was a friendly doctor (or one who could be "persuaded" by a sufficient sum). Since the early 90s, these disability benefits have been treated as a more effective form of unemployment benefit. One that represents a regular income and that cannot be taken away after three months, as is the case with unemployment benefit. Call it a safeguard against unemployment. Naturally, many individuals who never were hard workers have used this to obtain a free income, under the pretence of suffering, for example, from epilepsy. As a result, Poland has more pensioners and disability benefit claimants than any other EU country (including the new accession states). We spend four percent of our GNP on this funding, and are way ahead of our neighboring countries. Germany, with its welfare state (now slowly becoming a thing of the past), donates only 1.1 percent of its GNP to pensioners and disability benefit claimants. So which country has the better welfare state?
Luckily, the government has realized that Poland isn't rich enough to simply give away money, and has announced plans to conduct a verification of all claimants. That, of course, isn't a popular decision for the country's thousands of phony claimants who are cheating the state and all the honest tax-payers in this country. It's about time something was done with the system, which is simply unfair for those who clearly are handicapped, and who have to go through the humiliating process of examination every year in order to prove that they are indeed entitled to draw disability benefit.
