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BANK I KREDYT styczeń 2008

Microeconomics 9

in full-time educatiou. For the first 3 childreu the beuefits aniomil to 154 euros per inoutli, theu for every additioual child the beuefit is 179 euros per niouth.

•    Child Siippleiiient: The Child Suppleiiient is an iu-work beuefit for households witli dependent childreu youuger thau 18. It amounts to 140 euros and is withdrawu at a ratę of 70%. This instrument was partly iutroduced to decrease the gap of child support for those iu- and out-of work. However, because of the design of this transfer with a phasiug-in and phasing-out rangę and relatively Iow paymeuts, only few households beuefit front it.

•    Housiug Beuefits: In additiou to the housing beuefits, which are inclnded iu the ALG II, there exist generał Housing Beuefits (Wolmgeld). The aniount of beuefits depeuds ou region, year wheu the honse was built, size of the fiat, and uuinber of household members. Eligibility criteria shghtly differ front ALG II aud so does the withdrawal ratę. A household can receive either Wohngeld or ALG II.

•    Guarauteed Maintenauce Payments: Wheu a tnissiug pareut cauuot pay maintenauce payments (for example because of the lack of resources or because the pareut cauuot be fon ud), the goverumeuł takes over with transfers betweeu 110 and 170 euros depeuding ou the region aud age of the child.

•    Erziehungsgeld: For childreu youuger thau 3 years, there is au additioual child rearing beuefit (“Erziehungsgeld') of 300 euros per mouth which can be drawn for a inaxiinuui period of 24 mouths. This benefit is meaus-tested and is ouly granted if one of the pareuts is ou pareutal leave, i.e. uot working ntore thau 30 hours per week. The iuconte thresholds np to which this beuefit is granted differ by age of the child aud tliey aniount to abont 30,000 euros iu the first six mouths after childbirth and are reduced to abont 16,500 euros per year for childreu aged betweeu 7 and 24 mouths. Above these iucome thresholds, the beuefit is withdrawu at a ratę of 62 percent based ou household iucome. Giveu the assmuptious madę couceruiug the age of the childreu iu the families we consider, the Erziehungsgeld is not inclnded iu our analysis.⁴

2.3. Poland

Income taxation

In Poland both the employer aud the einployee pay social security contrihutioiis. Old age pension insurance is paid at the ratę of 9.76%, aud disability/survivors' pensious at the ratę 6.5% by both the einployee and the employer. Ou top of that employees pay iusorauce for sickuess aud matemity (2.45%) and employers pay work accideut and occupational diseases Insurance (from 0.97% to 3.86% depending ou the naturę of the job),⁵ coutributious to the Labour Fund (2.45%) and coutrihutions to the Fund of Guarauteed Employees' Beuefits (0.15%). This gives the total ratę of social security coutributious of 40% (of gross earuiugs, defined as total labour cost minus the employer’s part of SSCs.).

Iudividuals also pay Health Insurance at the ratę of 8.5% of taxable iucome (i.e. iucome after SSC coutributious). Of these, the majonty (7.75 percentage points) can be deducted from persoual iucome tax.

The iucome tax system iu Poland allows for joint taxatiou for couples aud single pareuts. Iu these cases ouly lialf of the family income is subject to the tax Schedule aud the resultiug tax liability is theu multiplied by two. Lach emplovee bas a tax allowances for work costs (’revenue costs'). The maximum allowauce is 1,227

The tax Schedule has tliree brackets with rates applied to these at: 19%, 30% aud 40% (with thresholds at 37,024 aud 74,048 zlotys per year - above the latter figurę taxes are paid at 40%). Each iudividual also has a uuiversal tax credit of 530,08 zlotys per year. As meutioued above a major part of Health I si r ice payments is also treated as a tax credit.

Transfer system

Iu 2005, there were three major elemeuts of the Polish meaus-tested beuefits system: Zasiłek Rodzinny (Family Beuefit, FB), Dodatek Mieszkaniowy (Housing Beuefit, HB) aud Pomoc Społeczna (Social Assistauce, SA) aud they have beeu described iu detail in Bargain et al. (2007).

The first of those is by far the most comniou with abont 22.6% of all households receiWug sonie form of the FB. The FBs are specific Imnefits for families with childreu aud include the basie Family Allowauce with additioual siipplcmcuts. Iliese include: a Suppleiiient for Child Birth, a Suppleiiient for Loue Pareuts (SLP) paid to those loue pareuts who do uot receive any support from the abseut pareut, a Suppleiiient for Large Families which proWdes additioual resources to families with three or morę childreu, and a Suppleiiient for the Start of School Year. The FBs are couditioual on previous years income of the family and are paid if the average mouthly income does uot exceed 504 zlotys per capita.⁶ The amounts of the basie Family Allowauce in 2005 were: 43 zlotys for the first and the secoud child iu the family, 53 zlotys for the third child and 66 zlotys for the fourth aud subsequeut childreu. The average ainouut of the FA per child was 45.8 zlotys, aud it was paid to abont 5,2 milliou childreu. Out of the snpplemeuts