The bon senioralny is granted by the gmina where the senior lives, not by ZUS and not by the voivodeship office. That is good news, because it means a local institution. The bad news is that at the time of writing no application can yet be filed, because there is no form and no submission window. Below is why, and what can usefully be done now.
Why you cannot apply yet
The Act on older persons and the coordination of long-term care has applied since 7 August 2026 and settles who is entitled to the voucher. What it does not settle is how to apply for it. The entire procedure, meaning the detailed way the voucher is granted and delivered, the bodies that grant and provide it, the financing arrangements and the monitoring rules, was handed by the Act to a Council of Ministers regulation that will define the Senior Voucher Programme. The Programme is adopted for three-year periods. Until that regulation exists, there is no formal route.
This is why the information circulating online about applications running from 1 to 30 September 2026 has no basis in the rules in force. It comes from an earlier draft that never entered into force. If you come across a specific date or a ready-made PDF application, check whether the author cites the regulation or the 2025 draft.
Which gmina is competent
The competent authority is the gmina where the senior actually lives, not where they are registered, and not where the adult child handling the matter lives. In practice the case is run by the local social services office, in cities the municipal social services office, and where a social services centre has been created, that centre. The gmina runs the Programme as a task delegated from central government, so there is no room for local resolutions changing the conditions: the criteria are the same nationwide.
That has one practical consequence worth remembering when planning. If the senior lives in their own home but you are considering a move to a child in another city, the competent gmina changes after the move, and the new gmina may sit in a different statutory group. It is worth checking before the decision rather than after.
The order of gminas, or why a neighbouring county may get the voucher first
This is the most overlooked element of the whole design, and for many families the decisive one. The Act does not launch the programme everywhere at once. It provides that the Programme is delivered first in gminas where, up to the day funding was requested, no public care services for seniors were being provided. Then in gminas where such services cover no more than ten people. Last, in gminas with the highest projected growth in the number and share of seniors.
The logic is understandable: money first where there is nothing. The effect for a resident of a large city with well developed care services is the opposite of intuitive, though. Meeting every statutory condition does not mean the money is available in your gmina this year. The Programme is financed by an earmarked grant within a spending limit of 100 million zł for 2026, 419.23 million zł for 2027 and 519.71 million zł for 2028. That limit, rather than the number of eligible people, will set the pace in the first years.
The change barely anyone mentions: the long-term care coordinator
The same Act introduces something that may matter more to a family looking for care than the voucher itself, and it has passed almost unnoticed in the media. Coordinating long-term care has become an own task of the powiat, delivered by a long-term care coordinator. By operation of law that is the head of the county family support centre, and in cities with county status the head of the municipal social services office or the director of the social services centre.
The coordinator's tasks include individual advisory support in identifying and choosing long-term care services and benefits matched to a particular person's situation, as well as palliative and hospice care where continuity or the right type of care needs to be secured. The coordinator collects data from providers, from the National Health Fund and from voivodes, and then supplies information on the availability of services and on how and on what terms to obtain them.
In other words: every powiat is supposed to have an official whose job is to advise, free of charge, on what long-term care is available and how to access it. The Act gave coordinators until 31 December 2026 for preparatory and organisational steps, and the transfer of provider data by the NHF starts in February 2027, so the quality of this help will vary a great deal at first. It is still worth calling, because it is the cheapest possible source of information on what is genuinely available nearby.
What to ask at the social services office
One well prepared phone call saves weeks of waiting. It is worth asking directly:
- Has the gmina requested funding to deliver the Senior Voucher Programme, and for how many seniors?
- Were public care services for seniors already being provided in the gmina, and if so, for how many people? That answer identifies the group in the statutory order.
- Is a list of people interested in the voucher being kept, one you could join now?
- How will the assessment of unmet needs work, and who carries it out?
- Who is the long-term care coordinator in our powiat, and how do we contact them?
- What care services does the gmina offer independently of the voucher, and on what payment terms?
That last question matters more than it seems. Ordinary care services under the Social Assistance Act have existed for years, the gmina grants them under its own payment rules, and in many cases they will be available sooner than the voucher. Just be aware that using them, where they are co-funded by government programmes, can exclude the bon senioralny, so it is a choice rather than an addition.
What to prepare in advance
The regulation will set the list of documents, but the direction is predictable, since it follows from the statutory conditions. You will need proof of age and citizenship, confirmation that the senior lives in the gmina, and documents establishing income for the three months before the application. For a pension that means the ZUS indexation decision and details of the amounts paid in those months.
Calculate that income in advance, and calculate it correctly. The Act counts income after tax and contributions, not the gross amount, so comparing a gross figure with the 3,410 zł threshold is a common source of unnecessary giving up. How to calculate it and what is left out is covered in our guide to bon senioralny 2026: who qualifies, how much and from when, and you can check it quickly in the bon senioralny eligibility checker.
Check too that nothing in your current arrangements rules the voucher out, because the exclusion list is long and covers round-the-clock care in every form as well as day care. We develop that in our piece on whether the bon senioralny combines with a care home.
If waiting is not an option
The bon senioralny will solve the problem of a few hours of help a week, and not immediately. If things at home are already strained and your parent needs constant supervision, it is more honest to check other routes in parallel than to wait for the regulation. With round-the-clock care the voucher would be excluded anyway, so waiting achieves nothing. Our pieces on benefits and allowances for seniors and on care at home versus a facility will help. And if you are looking for a place, describe the situation in the form and we will send facilities matched to the needs, the area and the budget.
