Abstract:

At a time when the government was actively seeking public support through cash transfers, the Solidarity Fund for Support of Disabled Persons (now the Solidarity Fund), established in October 2018, became a source of financing for the so-called 13^th and 14^th  pension and one of the tools to mask the problem of the public finance sector deficit. Although the Fund's main goal was to provide additional support for people with disabilities, its ultimate function is to primarily finance one-off  benefits, paid on annual basis, for old-age and disability pensioners beyond all the principles of the social policy, which, as a result, weakens the existing system of labour market protection. The article signals a critical analysis of the successive stages of the legislative process and the gradual expansion of the Fund's tasks and the impact of these changes on its financial management. The aim of the study is to present the consequences of the implementation of (politically-driven) ad-hoc instruments both for the financial management of budgetary funds and its impact on the debt of the entire sector. The material used for the analysis presented in this article consisted of legal acts, Sejm papers, explanatory memoranda, opinions of institutions and experts presented in the course of legislative work. The article employs the methodology of document analysis, desk research, and a critical case study, with the chronology of the creation of documents up to end of 2025.