The Supreme Administrative Court has confirmed that the 300+ benefit shall be granted to asylum seekers. Unfortunately, due to the defectiveness of the regulations, such cases will have to be resolved by the courts each time. The administrative authority cannot independently recognize that the regulation is inconsistent with the statutory laws and the Constitution.
By the judgment of 18 May 2020 the Supreme Administrative Court (ref. I OSK 2734/19) dismissed the cassation appeal of the Mayor of the City of Warsaw against the judgment of the Voivodeship Administrative Court in Warsaw of 17 May 2019. (ref. I SAB/Wa 49/19) concerning refusal to provide Good Start Program, the so-called 300+ benefit. The Supreme Administrative Court indicated that the Regulation of the Council of Ministers of 30 May 2018 on detailed conditions for the implementation of the government’s Good Start program goes beyond the scope of the statutory delegation. Consequently, the second paragraph of the regulation also violates article 92(1) of the Polish Constitution. This means that asylum seekers in Poland are entitled to this benefit.
As indicated by the Supreme Administrative Court, the Council of Ministers was authorized “solely to determine, by way of an ordinance, the specific conditions of the Good Start Program, which by no means can be regarded as creating the possibility of making changes to the subject matter of the act itself, as set out in art. 5(1). Such an assumption would be in clear contradiction with the content of Article 87(1) and Article 92(1) of the Polish Constitution. As it was indicated by the Supreme Administrative Court:
“Derogations from the content of the authorization may not be justified on practical grounds or on the need to resolve specific legal problems.”
The Supreme Administrative Court claimed that the administrative authorities
were right in the sense that while examining the applications, they were obliged to apply the provision of the regulation (…) pursuant to Article 6 of the Code of Civil Procedure. (…) However, if in a specific case an administrative court, which is bound only by the Constitution and statutes (Article 178 paragraph 1 of the Constitution of the Republic of Poland), obliges the authority to refrain from applying the regulation, it is obliged to take into account the court’s recommendations in this respect and, on the grounds of a specific case, to apply the regulation’s regulations in such a way that they do not interfere with a hierarchically higher act.
Legal aid in this case was provided by the legal counsel Magdalena Sadowska.