People are withdrawing money en masse. What's happening?

• An increasing number of Poles are accumulating savings in Employee Capital Plans.
• Recently, the number of payments from Employee Capital Plans has also been increasing.
• However, experts warn that hasty withdrawal of savings may negatively impact future retirement benefits.

The Central Statistical Office reported that at the end of 2024, 4,339.5 thousand people were saving under Employee Capital Plans , which means that their number increased by 447.5 thousand compared to 2023. In turn, the net assets of defined-date employee capital plan funds (PPK) increased by PLN 8.5 billion y/y at the end of 2024 and amounted to PLN 30.3 billion.

As "Fakt" noted, the scale of PPK payouts has also been growing recently. "The Central Statistical Office report shows that in 2023 the amount of refunds exceeded PLN 1.5 billion, while in 2024 - PLN 1.9 billion," we read.

An employee with an average salary, i.e. PLN 8,000 gross, will pay PLN 1,920 into PPK over a year. If they decide to withdraw from the program after a year, they can count on PLN 2,928. Therefore, they additionally gain over a thousand zlotys from payments from their employer - the daily calculated.

However, experts warn against withdrawing money from PPK early. - Withdrawing funds from PPK is a solution that essentially contradicts the idea of ​​long-term saving. It must be remembered that PPK are, in principle, constructed and planned as a way for the saver to accumulate funds for several, a dozen or even several dozen years in order to be able to use them after reaching the age of 60, i.e. in the autumn of life - Dr. Marcin Wojewódka from the Pension Institute told "Fakt".

Employee Capital Plans are a private, long-term savings program in which savings are built jointly by employees, employers, and the state. For an employee, participation in PPK is voluntary. They can stop saving at any time and then return to it.

Contributions to the PPK account come from three sources: the employer, the employee and the state:

• the employer and the employee make basic (mandatory) contributions to the PPK;
• both the employer and the employee may declare additional (voluntary) contributions;
• the amount of payments is calculated as a percentage of the employee's salary.
• the state will add specific amounts to this pool – regardless of the employee’s income;
• those who save for at least three months will receive a one-time welcome payment of PLN 250 from the state;
• then each year, after meeting certain conditions, it will top up the employee's account with the amount of PLN 240.

Savings accumulated in PPK are the private property of the participant. This means that they can be used at any time before the age of 60, without having to provide a reason. However, when returning, it should be borne in mind that the payment will not include the entire accumulated funds. It will be reduced by:

• additional payments from public funds (welcome payment and annual payments),
• 30 percent of funds from employer contributions,
• 19% tax on capital gains generated by the remaining funds, derived from employer contributions and employee contributions.

It is worth remembering, however, that even in the case of a refund, we will withdraw more than we paid in – for annual savings, the profit will be around 50%, and when saving for 10 years, we can withdraw around twice as much as we paid in, after deducting the refund of state payments, transferring 30% of employer payments to ZUS and paying capital gains tax.