Formalities · 11 min read

PFRON funding for a prosthesis. What the fund really pays

Artur Wąsowicz · August 2, 2026 · updated August 7, 2026

The NFZ limit does not cover a prosthesis with electronics. PFRON pays towards it through two different programmes, only one of which really funds equipment at that level. Three questions before you file show you which one.

The NFZ limit for an above-knee prosthesis at the highest mobility level is twenty thousand złoty. A prosthesis with a microprocessor knee costs several times that. The gap does not go away and nobody will pay it for you, but there is a second source, and it is the one that funds most prostheses with electronics in Poland.

PFRON, the Państwowy Fundusz Rehabilitacji Osób Niepełnosprawnych or State Fund for the Rehabilitation of Disabled People, does not hand out money directly. Your district does, through a PCPR, the district family support centre, or through a city social support office, depending on where you live. That matters, because some of the rules are set by the district itself, and the same regulations can work differently in two neighbouring places.

Two routes, easily confused

The first is funding towards orthopaedic devices and assistive supplies. It comes straight from the rehabilitation act and runs all year. Income counts, employment does not.

The second is the Aktywny samorząd programme, Module I, Area C. It has one application window a year and firm deadlines. Income does not count, employment or study does. The amounts are on a different scale.

The two routes do not rule each other out, but you cannot be paid twice for the same part of a prosthesis. In practice most people in work go to Aktywny samorząd, because that is where the real money for electronics sits.

Route one: orthopaedic devices

This is a top-up towards the same device you hold an NFZ prescription for. The district adds to the amount the fund did not cover.

It is calculated in two stages. Up to one hundred per cent of your own share within the limit, where the code in question has such a share at all. On limb prostheses it is zero per cent, so that part usually drops out. The second part matters more: up to one hundred and fifty per cent of the sum of the limit and the own share, where the purchase price is higher than the limit.

On a below-knee prosthesis with a limit of ten thousand złoty, that comes to up to fifteen thousand on top of the reimbursement. The amount is not guaranteed. The district can award less and usually does once the annual pot starts running down.

The income test is calculated from the average wage announced by Główny Urząd Statystyczny, Poland's central statistical office, so the figure moves every quarter. The threshold is fifty per cent of that wage per person in a shared household, and sixty-five per cent for someone living alone. It is averaged over the three months before you file.

One thing worth remembering. You file before you buy. An invoice issued before the application closes the door to funding, because the district does not reimburse an expense already incurred.

Route two: Aktywny samorząd

The programme is split into modules. What interests us is Module I, Area C, and within it Task 3 and Task 4. Task 3 is the purchase of a prosthesis with modern technical solutions, Task 4 is keeping a prosthesis you already own in working order.

There are four conditions of entry and you have to meet all of them:

• a certificate of degree of disability, or a disability certificate for someone under 16
• working age or employment, meaning up to 60 for women and up to 65 for men, except that someone in work can be older
• stability of the disease process, confirmed by a PFRON expert opinion
• prospects of gaining capacity for work thanks to support from the programme, confirmed by a PFRON expert opinion

A separate point where people miscalculate: the own contribution cannot be covered by NFZ reimbursement. The reimbursement raises the total you have available for a prosthesis, but those ten per cent have to come from somewhere else. Some material circulating online still describes the position before the rules changed. Confirm this with your operator before you build your budget.

The last two conditions rarely appear in descriptions of the programme, and they decide the outcome. The PFRON expert is a doctor, usually an orthopaedist, who issues an opinion for the operator. Without it a prosthesis application will not go through. This is not a paper formality: the expert watches you walk and assesses how you move, in person. Dress so that the prosthesis and your gait can be seen, and come in the shoes you wear every day. Travel costs to the meeting are reimbursed up to the amount set in the programme.

The prosthesis has to be at least at the third quality level. That is a classification from the annex to the programme, not a term from any manufacturer's catalogue. The third level means solutions allowing walking at variable speed and over uneven ground, the fourth covers equipment for high activity and sport. Before you file, ask your prosthetist for written confirmation of which level the chosen configuration falls into.

What Aktywny samorząd pays

The amounts below apply to the 2026 edition and concern a prosthesis at the third quality level. Your own contribution comes on top of each of them, a minimum of ten per cent of the gross price.

Those last two entries get mixed up most often, and I have seen it even in material produced by prosthetics workshops. The higher amount does not apply to every above-knee amputation, only to amputation within the thigh or hip disarticulation, where the prosthesis also takes in the hip joint. Amputation through the shaft of the femur falls under the lower amount.

Servicing is a separate task

Task 4 funds keeping a prosthesis you already own in working order, provided it is at least at the third quality level. The maximum is thirty per cent of the corresponding entry under Task 3.

This is money hardly anyone remembers. A socket replacement after your residual limb changes volume, a service check on a microprocessor knee, a new cosmetic cover, a repair after a fall. It all sits under this task, and the application goes in during the same window as the one for a new prosthesis.

From my own experience: on a microprocessor knee, the bill for a service check with diagnostics and replacement of worn parts runs into thousands of złoty, not hundreds. Without Task 4 you pay that out of your own pocket.

Three times the limit, and the PFRON expert

In exceptional cases the operator can award more than the amount in the table. There is one condition and it is very specific: the PFRON expert has to recommend raising the quality of the prosthesis to the fourth level, justifying it by the applicant's capacity for work.

The programme text sets a ceiling on that increase: no more than three times the base amount. Above knee that comes to eighty-two and a half thousand złoty, and after a hip disarticulation ninety-nine thousand.

This is not a standard route but an exception, and it has to be defended with a description of what the job actually demands. If your work involves long distances, rough ground, lifting or a changeable rhythm to the day, describe it specifically and back it up with a statement from your employer.

Always ask for two amounts in writing: the one recommended by the PFRON expert and the one awarded by the operator in its decision. A conversation in an office is not a document you can build a budget on. I am filing an application in this edition myself and will describe how it goes once I have a decision.

Points you get for free

Applications are scored, and with a limited district pot, points decide the order. Some of them are handed out purely for how and when you file.

• ten points for filing electronically through the System Obsługi Wsparcia with an electronic signature or a profil zaufany, Poland's official online identity, with this preference available once only
• five points for filing in the first half of the year
• five points for people affected by a natural disaster or a chance event

The remaining fifty points of substantive assessment are set by your operator. Look at their website and check the criteria before you start writing your justification. If the district rewards employment or study, put that in the first paragraph, not at the end.

Fifteen points for an electronic application filed in March is the difference between an award and a reserve list. It costs nothing beyond setting up a profil zaufany.

2026 deadlines and what happens after 31 August

Applications under Module I, areas A to D, run from 1 March to 31 August 2026. They are filed through the System Obsługi Wsparcia at sow.pfron.gov.pl, or in person with your operator.

If the deadline passes, the matter is not closed until next year. The programme text provides that the operator may restore an applicant's deadline for filing. PFRON publishes a ready-made request form. The decision is taken by your district, not by head office, and the reason for being late has to be described and documented. Simply stating that you did not make it in time is not enough.

It is simpler to make the original deadline, though. If you are reading this in August and do not have a full set of documents, file on time with what you have and complete it when asked. That is usually easier than getting a deadline restored.

What you need to gather

The list varies between districts, but the core is the same everywhere.

• a copy of the certificate of degree of disability, certified as a true copy
• a prescription for the supply of medical devices, issued by an eligible person
• a price offer or pro forma invoice from the prosthetics workshop, broken down by component
• a statement of employment or a document confirming study
• a declaration of income, if you are going the orthopaedic devices route
• a medical certificate on the level of amputation and state of health, on the operator's own form
• consent to data processing and the information notice, signed

Ask the workshop for an offer broken down by component, not one figure at the bottom of the page. The PFRON expert assesses whether the proposed solution matches the third quality level, and a single lump sum gives them nothing to read that from.

What one prosthesis is really funded from

A worked example, to see the proportions. Someone with an amputation at thigh height, in work, third mobility level, a modular prosthesis with a microprocessor knee.

Forty-seven and a half thousand złoty sounds like a lot and it is a lot. On a prosthesis with a microprocessor knee and an energy-storing foot it can still be half the price or less, depending on the components. The rest is your own contribution, family money, a fundraiser or a donation from an organisation.

I am not writing this to put anyone off. I am writing it because the worst situation is the one where somebody counts on full coverage, signs a contract with a workshop, and only after the decision finds out how much they have to add. The conversation about the gap has to happen at the start, not at the end.

Before you file

• Check on your district family support centre's website what substantive criteria your operator has set. That is half the score.
• Set up a profil zaufany and file electronically. You get those points once in your life, so do not waste them on a paper application.
• File in the first half of the year. March beats August for two reasons: points, and the state of the district pot.
• Ask your prosthetist for written confirmation of the prosthesis quality level and for an offer broken down by component.
• Do not sign a contract or accept an invoice before the decision. An expense incurred earlier is lost.
• Calculate the own contribution separately. NFZ reimbursement does not replace it, even though it lands on the same invoice.
• If you already have a prosthesis and something is going wrong with it, check Task 4 before you pay for the service yourself.
• Prepare for the meeting with the PFRON expert. They will be assessing your gait, so bring comfortable shoes and clothing that lets the prosthesis be seen. Describe your daily life specifically: distances, terrain, stairs, what the job demands.
• If you are neither working nor studying, Aktywny samorząd is out. What remains is the orthopaedic devices route, open all year.

Artur Wąsowicz

Founder of the Świat Bioniki Foundation, prosthesis user since 2020