Steady rise in value of retirement pensions

Since 1999 Polish retirement pensions are rising steadily, with the average pension consisting of 57-65 percnt of an average salary, Rzeczpospolita reports. Current statistics suggest, that the number of citizens entitled to monthly draw money from social insurance institutions ZUS and KRUS may be as high as 6 billion. The lowest pensions are distributed to few - only 6.3 percent of the retired receive less than PLN 1,000. The largest group (nearly 47 percent) earns between PLN 1,000 and PLN 2,000. More than 12 percent of the retired receive monthly more than PLN 2,000. Despite a high number of retired, they still receive large portion of their past salaries. With an especially high replacement rate, current seniors receive, on average, 60 percent of their previous incomes. For the generation working now, the statistics seem much less optimistic, with the experts from the Sobieski Institute predicting an only 20-percent replacement rate.