ZUS sends inspectors to resorts. They're checking what you're doing on sick leave

The highest of the vacation period is simply a time of earned remainder by the sea, mountains or Mazury for many Poles. However, it turns out that this year popular resorts have become an arena of different control activities. As media reports show, including video material that is gaining popularity on the web, Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) sent its controllers to tourist destinations. Their goal is clear and precise: to verify whether people who are on sick leave (L4) are actually recovering at home, or whether they are utilizing that time for careless holidays. Information on inspections on beaches and mountain trails frozen blood in the veins of thousands of Poles, who could consider that medical leave was an perfect chance for cheaper holidays beyond the authoritative term. Nothing more incorrect – the consequences can be highly serious.

Why is ZUS going into the field? The scale of the problem and billions of PLN in the background

The decision to send inspectors to resorts is neither accidental nor malicious. This is simply a direct consequence to an expanding and highly costly problem for the system: abuse of sick leave. From data regularly published by ZUS it appears that all year sickness benefits are spent on tens of billions of PLN. Although the vast majority of Poles usage L4 in an honest way, The establishment has for years identified a group of people who treat the exemption as an additional, paid leave.

The magnitude of the phenomenon is alarming. In just 1 In 2023 ZUS carried out hundreds of thousands of inspections the regularity of the usage of medical exemptions which have led to the contested benefits for a full amount exceeding hundreds of millions of PLN. This money, alternatively of supporting real sick people, was paid to people who worked black at the time, renovated apartments, and rested in resorts during the summer. Sending controllers to these places is simply a strategical action aimed not only at punishing dishonest people, but above all at sending a clear preventive signal to the full society.

What is ZUS control in practice?

ZUS controllers have 2 main objectives. The first is formal verification – whether the individual on release is an worker of the company in general. The second, much more crucial in the context of trips, is checking the correct usage of the medical exemption. It involves checking that the insured individual does not execute activities at that time which are incompatible with the nonsubjective of L4, namely recovery.

Standard inspection shall take place at the address indicated in the medical release. But what if the controller does not find anyone?

• The controller has the right knock on the neighbor's door and ask if they have seen a individual on leave and know where she is.
• If nobody's home, the controller leaves aviso requesting urgent contact and explanation of absence. The insured individual must then reasonably justify why he was not at his place of residence (e.g. doctor’s visit, prescription).

In the case of actions in resorts, actions may be little standard. As the materials propose [Video], the controllers may simply observe public places and, in the event of the recognition of a individual who should be on L4, may intervene by carding and documenting the fact of his stay in the vacation resort.

“The illness can walk” is not “it can go on holiday”

Many Poles misinterpret the endorsement on medical release. The discrimination is crucial:

• Annotation ‘a illness should lie’ (code 1): The case is clear. Any absence from the home that is not associated with a visit to a doctor or a pharmacy is the basis for withdrawing the benefit.
• Annotation ‘a illness can walk’ (code 2): It's the most abused record. It does not mean consent to any activity. According to court case-law, “the anticipation of walking” is intended to enable the performance of basic life activities – making groceries, going for a recommended walk for rehabilitation purposes, or visiting a doctor. This absolutely does not entitle you to go on holiday, sunbathing on the beach, mountain tours, refurbishment of an flat or work.

Each of these activities is considered to be misuse of the exemption, due to the fact that it runs counter to its objective, which is to get back to wellness and workability as shortly as possible.

Serious consequences – what are the risks of “vacation on L4”?

The consequences of being caught red-handed are far more serious than shame. The strategy provides for a three-stage responsibility:

1. Loss of entitlement to sickness benefit: It's an immediate consequence. The Social Insurance Institution shall decide to revoke the entitlement to the allowance for the full period of the controlled exemption. This means that the individual caught, for example, in the mid-30-day L4 loses the benefit not only in days after the check, but in the full month.
2. Obligation to reimburse unduly collected benefit: If the allowance has already been paid, the ZUS will call for its refund along with interest.
3. Employee consequences:ZUS must inform the employer that his worker misuses the dismissal. For the employer this is simply a sign of a failure of trust that may be the basis for reprobate, and in extreme, gross cases, even to disciplinary dismissal pursuant to Article 52 of the Labour Code (severe breach of basic labour obligations).

The ZUS action in the resorts is more than just catching crooks. This is an effort to change the mentality and fight the universal in Poland with the silent approval to abuse public benefits. Over the years, trips to L4 were treated as a form of “sprit” and a way of organizing life. Activities of the Department, publicized by media and materials [Video], to make Poles aware that the social safety strategy is simply a common good that we all gotta take care of.

The sickness benefit money comes from the contributions of everyone working. Any fraud is simply a failure to the strategy to defend those who truly request help. Although checks may seem to be any form of surveillance, they are in the present situation a necessity to guarantee justice and stableness of the system. The message from ZUS is clear: medical leave is the privilege and right of the sick person, not the gateway to free leave. Anyone who thinks otherwise must number on the fact that his carefree remainder can end up gathering with the controller and very painful consequences.