The Poland Model—Promoting ‘Family Values’ With Cash Handouts
This story was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and the Fuller Project for International Reporting.
SOBOLEW, Poland—Andrzej and Izabela Gromuł have a lot going on, with three boys ranging from 5 to 12, and a daughter on the way. On the warm Saturday afternoon that we spoke, the grassy backyard of their home in this small town was filled with toys, bicycles, and laundry drying in the sun; stairs off the foyer led to an unfinished attic, soon to be a playroom for the children.
Yet money is not tight. In recent years, the family has gone on a skiing vacation, and the couple just took their first trip to Italy for a romantic vacation. Andrzej works in construction and Izabela sells construction materials, but their newfound taste for travel, they said, came courtesy of Poland’s ruling party, Law and Justice.
The party, known as PiS, its Polish acronym, came to power in 2015 after campaigning on its flagship Family 500+ program, a monthly allowance of 500 złoty (about $125) per child for each kid after the first, or for single children in low-income families. Since the program went
