What is “income earned” and how does it affect the calculation of one’s income?

“Earning an income” can be spoken of in two cases:

income earned in 2023: this means that the income occurred only in the course of 2023, it was not earned throughout the year, e.g. the contract of employment was concluded on 1 March 2023, which means that the amount of the income for 2023 will be divided by the relevant number of months, i.e. by 10 - not by 12 (unless it is an income from the “income earned” category), and
income earned after 2023 (this is the income we ask you to provide in item 4 of appendix 2 to the Regulations): this means that a new source of income (a new contract), i.e. one that did not exist in 2023, occurred after 2023.

The notion of “earning an income” is a specific situation (we can generally say that any income in its common meaning is earned - in the sense that it has been earned, gained, obtained, has occurred; however, when it comes to applying for a maintenance grant, “earning an income” means only a specific situation; the colloquial term used in this context will be “gained”). An income that occurred throughout the entire year 2023 and continues to this day (the source of income did and still does exist, e.g. a continuing contract of employment) is not an “income earned”; when calculating the monthly income of a given person, the amount of this income needs to be divided by 12 (months).

An “income earned” in 2023 - is an income that fulfils the following three conditions collectively:

1. it occurred in the course of the year 2023, it had not existed since the beginning of the year 2023 (e.g. an employment contract concluded on 01.03.2023)
2. it exists at present (the contract continues or there have been several contracts concluded with the employer, and the current one is valid and continues),
3. pursuant to section 2 § 5 of appendix no. 9 to the Regulations, the income can be earned only by:

finishing one’s child care leave,
obtaining an unemployment benefit or a compensation,
becoming employed or taking up other gainful activity,
obtaining an early retirement allowance, a teacher’s compensation benefit, a retirement pension or a disability pension, a family pension, a social pension or a parental supplementary benefit referred to in the Act of 31 January 2019 on parental supplementary benefit (Journal of Laws of the Republic of Poland item 303)
taking up non-agricultural business activity or resuming such an activity after a period of suspension within the meaning of Article 16b of the Act of 20 December 1990 on the social insurance for farmers or Article 36aa section 1 of the Act of 13 October 1998 on the social insurance system,
obtaining a sickness benefit, a rehabilitation benefit, or a maternity benefit, granted after losing one’s employment or ceasing to have other gainful activity,
obtaining a parental benefit,
obtaining a maternity benefit referred to in the provisions on the social security for farmers,
obtaining a doctoral scholarship referred to in Article 209 sections 1 and 7 of the Act of 20 July 2018 – Law on Higher Education and Science;

The amount of an income that fulfils the above conditions (i.e. it is an “income earned” in the year 2023) will be divided by the number of months in which it was gained, and not by 12 (months).

An income that does not fulfil the above conditions is not an “income earned”, and its amount for the year 2023 will always be divided by 12 (months) (e.g. the amount of maintenance received first on 01.09.2023).

An “income earned” after 2032 - is an income that fulfils the following three conditions collectively:

1. it occurred after the year 2023, it did not exist in the year 2023 (e.g. an employment contract concluded on 15.05.2024),
2. it exists at present (the contract continues or there have been several contracts concluded with the employer, and the current one is valid and continues),

3. pursuant to section 3 § 5 of appendix no. 9 to the Regulations, the income can be earned only by:

finishing one’s child care leave,
obtaining an unemployment benefit or a compensation,
becoming employed or taking up other gainful activity,
obtaining an early retirement allowance, a teacher’s compensation benefit, a retirement pension or a disability pension, a family pension, a social pension or a parental supplementary benefit referred to in the Act of 31 January 2019 on parental supplementary benefit (Journal of Laws of the Republic of Poland item 303)
taking up non-agricultural business activity or resuming such an activity after a period of suspension within the meaning of Article 16b of the Act of 20 December 1990 on the social insurance for farmers or Article 36aa section 1 of the Act of 13 October 1998 on the social insurance system,
obtaining a sickness benefit, a rehabilitation benefit, or a maternity benefit, granted after losing one’s employment or ceasing to have other gainful activity,
obtaining a parental benefit,
obtaining a maternity benefit referred to in the provisions on the social security for farmers,
obtaining a doctoral scholarship referred to in Article 209 sections 1 and 7 of the Act of 20 July 2018 – Law on Higher Education and Science;

The monthly amount of an income that fulfills the above conditions (i.e. it is an “income earned” after the year 2023) will be added to the amounts of other monthly incomes of a given person, calculated on the basis of the year 2023. This is to be an amount for the month coming after the month in which the “income earned” occurred.

E.g. one's contract of employment was concluded on 01.07.2024, so the month coming after the month of earning one’s income will be August, and the nett amount for August will be the amount of the “income earned”, which needs to be added to the person’s average monthly income for the year 2023.

NOTICE: An income that occurred after the year 2023, but no longer exists at present is not an "income earned", such an income is not taken into account at all when calculating a person’s monthly income, nor is it documented in the application.

An income that does not fulfill the third condition – e.g. an income from maintenance, from an agricultural holding, a rental income – even though it occurred after 2023 and is gained at present, is not an “income earned” and should not be taken into consideration.

It is the student’s responsibility to include the “income earned” in their family in the application.

Therefore, the following types of income cannot be either an “income lost” (they must be included in the calculations, even though they no longer exist) or an “income earned” (they should not be included in the calculations, even though they appeared after 2023 and exist at present):

- income from agricultural holding

- rental income

- income from maintenance payment (only the maintenance adjudged to be paid in 2019 by a deceased person is considered an “income lost”)

- income from benefits under the maintenance fund

- income from the tax office under the child tax credit

NOTICE!

The provisions on losing and earning income do not apply to income from employment or other gainful activity and to income from de-registration or starting a non-agricultural business activity if a family member has lost their income gained in any of the said ways and has earned income from the same employer/mandator/ordering party or has taken up non-agricultural business activity again within 3 months from the date of loss of income,

If you have any questions, please contact: [email protected].