Do Ukrainians abuse one-day trips to Poland just to receive migrant benefits? No, that's not true: Poland's Social Insurance Institution (ZUS) does not grant funds to Ukrainians who come to Poland for only one day.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) where it was published by alex_belarussian on August 30, 2023. The text on the video, translated from Russian into English by Lead Stories staff, reads:
A service "benefit tour" to Poland is gaining popularity in Ukraine. Ukrainians lost their fear, they go to get benefits and then resell them.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Tue Sep 5 07:07:12 2023 UTC)
Pawel Zebrowski, spokesman of Poland's Social Insurance Institution noted:
There is no question of any one-day tourism to receive benefits from Poland. ZUS has tools to check whether the person who submitted the application has the right to do so.
The spokesman added that ZUS verifies the eligibility of Ukrainians in Poland before granting benefits and during their stay in Poland ZUS controls if their status has changed.
In case a Ukrainian refugee decides to leave the country, ZUS revokes their right to obtain financial assistance. "Refugees who leave our country, even for one day, must complete important formalities when returning to Poland", the website reads.
As of June 1, 2023, an amount of €4,027 has been already withheld from the financial aid for Ukrainian citizens due to their departure from the country.
The Ministry of Family and Social Policy of Poland denied the claim of the one-day trips of Ukrainians on X (formerly Twitter) calling it "fake news."
