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'''FIGURE 25. Typical rural dwelling, central Poland (note the television antenna) (U/OU)''' (picture)

central issues focused on by the workers in December 1970. As a result, housing construction, with the increasing help of a growing nongovernment sector as indicated, is one of the new regime's top priorities. Official goals inclue an apartment for every family by "the mid-1980's" and "to complete by 1990 a basic modernization of old housing resources." To reach these goals will require the construction of between 4.5 and 4.8 million new apartments by 1985, and a total of 6.6 to 7.3 million apartments—new and rebuilt—by 1990. These goals reveal the magnitude of the current housing shortage as well as the regime's determination to tackle the problem.

2. Social security and welfare programs (U/OU)

Like many other European countries, Poland had a comprehensive, centrally administered system of social insurance for nonagricultural workers even before World War II. The postwar government rapidly reconstructed the prewar system and expanded it to include that small part of the agricultural population employed on state farms. The citizen's right to social security insurance was formalized by guarantees contained in the constitution of July 1952. The entire social insurance system is administered by the state, as is the bulk of noninstitutionalized public welfare aid. The virtually cost-free coverage applies automatically to all gainfully employed persons in the socialist sector of the economy and their dependents. Legislation in the late 1960's extended coverage to selected groups of workers in cooperative and private sectors of the economy. In 1970, the system covered a total of 10,868,000 directly insured persons, of whom 223,000 were employed outside the socialized economy. Including the dependents of the insured, the number of persons covered was 78% of the total population, in contrast to 47% in 1950 and 60% in 1960.

In line with the Gierek regime's policy of increased attention to the socioeconomic welfare of the population and the real need of the regime for wider popular support, steps taken since 1971 include an expansion in eligibility for social security coverage to many categories of self-employed persons previously considered ineligible; included is the important category of writers, as well as some journalists and others in selected professions. The numerous private peasantry continues to be ineligible for actual social insurance coverage such as pensions, disability payments, and family allowances, but as part of the regime's liberal agricultural policy, it has made available to them comprehensive, virtually free, medical care (which is not formally a part of the social insurance system, and is discussed below under Health). As of 1972, it is estimated that 80% of 90% of the population is covered by all or some provisions of the social insurance system. In addition, persons who remain ineligible for such automatic coverage have access to state-sponsored individual coverage on a premium basis, although the number so covered is negligible.

Social security coverage includes sickness and maternity insurance, family allowances, and the use of health resorts, as well as old-age, disability, and survivors benefits and pensions. Although unemployment insurance provisions dating to 1924 have not been removed from the statute books, they have been allowed to remain largely inoperative, since the Communist regime denies the existence of classical unemployment in a "workers' state." Temporary, frictional unemployment has been admitted to exist since 1957, however, when a relaxation of previously rigid policies of labor allocation resulted in significant, and continuing, labor mobility. Lump-sum payments for such frictional unemployment were instituted at that time, and are administered outside the framework of the social insurance system. In practice, however, the administration of these benefits has been sporadic, and the authorities prefer to direct claimants to job assignments—often disregarding qualifications and skills.

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