Moving away from Poland, can I claim retirement payments back?

I have a one year employment contract and every month i have to pay for the social insurance which i know is for the retirement benefits. But, soon, i will leave and the people at the ZUS are not sure whether i can claim this money back. generally, in other countries, i know they give back the money as pension amt. Does anybody know if there is some provision for this or if some foreigner has rcd this money. please help.

thanks in advance

You might in theory be able to get that money back or you might not. However, the chances of actually ever getting any cash out of ZUS are so tiny and the amount of work involved in getting it so huge that you are best off just forgetting about that money. Just think of ZUS as legalised robbery.

sheesh....that really sucks! because i have to pay both the contributions from my salary..generally, it is like one part from ur salary and the other part from ur employer. and its an awful lot of money :(

Set yourself up as a one-person company. It's easy to do and for the first two years of operation you pay only 250zl of ZUS per month. And you pay tax at a flat rate of 19% too.

If the countries you worked in and the country you will retire in are all in the EU then there are provisions for this, but you don't mention what country you are from/going to.

well, its the first time i am working in the european union...so, i am not aware..but, i have friends who worked in germany, france...and i shud ask them..but i do know about places like korea, japan etc where my friends rcd this money.

btw, i am an indian and i go back home in june