23.08.2024 Labour law

Employment of people with disabilities – decisions and co-financing from PFRON


On 2 August 2024, the Act amending the Act on vocational and social rehabilitation and employment of disabled people was announced in the Journal of Laws. It extends the validity of disability or degree of disability certificates.

Validity of disability certificates extended

The Act of 24 July 2024 amending the Act on vocational and social rehabilitation and employment of disabled persons entered into force on 3 August 2024. The Act extends the validity of disability certificates and disability degree certificates. Namely, these are decisions issued for a fixed period that:

  • remained valid pursuant to Art. 23 of the Act of 9 March 2023 amending the Act on Competition and Consumer Protection and certain other acts, or
  • whose validity period expired after 5 August 2023 and before 30 September 2024.

Under the new Act, they remain valid for the period of waiting for the issuance of a new decision, which allows disabled persons to be protected against the loss of benefits and entitlements they are entitled to under the previous decision, including those regarding employment.

Disability certificates – applying for a new document more quickly

According to the introduced regulations, a disabled person who has a certificate on disability or the degree of disability issued for a specified period may apply to the district team for assessing disability with an application for the issuance of another certificate on disability or the degree of disability 2 months before the expiry of the validity period (previously 30 days). In the case of persons under 16 years of age, this deadline is even longer; an application for another decision may be submitted 3 months before the expiry of the document held.

Waiting for a new decision and the validity of the previous one

The new Act also assumes that previously held decisions establishing disability or decisions establishing the degree of disability remain valid until the date of issuance of the next final decision, but no longer than until the last day of the 6th month following the date determining such validity and provided that the disabled person submits an application for another certificate.

Funding from PFRON retained

The solutions presented above enabling disabled people to submit an application for the issuance of another decision faster than before have a significant impact on co-financing from PFRON for employers hiring them.

So far, the employer could not always benefit from funding in the period between the loss of the old certificate and the employee obtaining a new one. Now, when submitting an application for a new decision, the employee receives a certificate confirming the submission of the application and specifying the validity period of the current decision. Thanks to this, the employer can use the employee’s previous certificate and continue to benefit from PFRON funding.

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