Flooding hell

12th June 2010

Flood victims are failing to claim for state funded compensation owing to a tangled web of red tape.

With thousands of households across the country affected by some of the worst flooding that Poland has experienced for decades, the government has made available some PLN 2 bln in emergency aid to help people cope with the situation.

Victims are permitted to claim an immediate PLN 6,000, with later payments rising to PLN 100,000 , depending on the level of damage wrought by the floods.

But despite government pledges to make the claimant process easy, open and not dependent on income, regional inconsistencies have developed.

The press reported that in the Sandomierz area, one of th ...