Senior policy in contemporary Poland: declarations and actions

Abstract

At the beginning of the article an analysis is made about new applications of commonly known terms, such as retirement pension, geriatric, grey or silver tsunami, and “election retirement pensions”, covering among others civic retirement pension, maternal retirement pension, 13th and 14th bonus retirement pension, guaranteed retirement pension and non-taxed retirement pension. There are also presented demographic changes in Poland in the last half-century (1967–2017) and their consequences. Another thematic thread concerns senior policy, its genesis and attempt to defining what it is, and its main goals. Senior policy which is being created in Poland can be successfully implemented on three basic levels: governmental, self-governmental and non-governmental (civic). Activities addressed to seniors can be divided in at least six areas: 1) activity and activation of older people; 2) education; 3) culture and mass media; 4) legislation and legal assistance; 5) social assistance and support, and 6) health and preventive care. This paper discusses examples of activities in the above ranges, and in the final passage of this text we have discussion on the senior policy in contemporary Poland trying to answer vital questions: do we have in Poland social policy addressing the problems of elderly people?, and if the term ‘senior policy’ not a ‘semantic abuse’?