The impact of the right to retirement on the right to nursing benefit: disputes and controversies

Abstract

The article analyses the issue of granting a nursing benefit to a person who has a fixed pension entitlement. The topic is important because it concerns providing material support to people who resign from professional activity to look after a disabled person. Recent discrepancies in the jurisprudence of administrative courts do not allow for an unequivocal assessment of the impact of the established right to a pension on the possibility of acquiring the right to a nursing benefit. Within the same administrative court, different adjudication panels have different views, which does not give citizens a sense of legal certainty. The author analysed the presented views in the case-law and pointed out the possibilities of solving the problem. In the author’s opinion, the legislator does not take into account the changing economic and social situation in the adopted solutions of the relationship between the entitlement to nursing benefit and the entitlement to a retirement pension,
which causes controversy in practice. The lack of a legislative initiative in this area means that the courts begin to correct unadjusted provisions in order to issue fair rulings.