Poland tightens car insurance rules: what Ukrainian refugees need to know about PESEL protection
On June 3, 2025, the Polish government approved draft amendments to several key laws that will directly affect the procedure for obtaining a mandatory motor vehicle license — vehicle owner liability insurance (OC). In particular, it is about updating the Law on Compulsory Insurance, the Law on the Insurance Guarantee Fund (UFG), as well as the Law on Population Registration. These changes are designed to protect citizens’ personal data, limit fraud using other people’s PESEL numbers, and provide policyholders with new verification mechanisms.
What will change: PESEL verification before concluding an insurance contract
In the current version of the law, insurers do not have access to the PESEL number protection registry. This means that no insurance company can verify whether the person applying for a motor vehicle license is really the owner of the specified PESEL number. It was because of this gap that cases of fraud became possible – when a person illegally used someone else’s personal data to conclude an insurance contract.
The new version of the law will introduce a mechanism for official verification of PESEL status. If the number is entered in the registry as “protected” (blocked for use by others), the insurance company or the Insurance Guarantee Fund (UFG) will be able to obtain this information directly from the state registry. In this case, the registration of the driver’s license will be blocked – until the identity of the applicant is established. Such blocking does not mean a denial of insurance, but will lead to a temporary stoppage of the process, which may have consequences — in particular, a fine for lateness of mandatory insurance.
The new rules are not yet in effect, they will enter into force 3 months after their official publication in Dziennik Ustaw, the Polish government gazette. However, it is already known that for Ukrainian refugees who have issued a PESEL number and also have a car or plan to register it in Poland, the standard procedure for concluding an insurance contract will change.
Why is it important for Ukrainian PESEL refugees?
Many Ukrainians who have been in Poland since 2022 as part of the temporary protection program have already received a PESEL UKR number, which is an identification number that gives the right to medical care, education, state assistance, and also allows you to register a vehicle, open a bank account, and sign civil law contracts, including auto insurance. However, not everyone knows that this number can be additionally protected to prevent its use by third parties. And there are even fewer who imagine that the insurance company previously had no way to check whether it was a real PESEL or someone used it illegally.
That is why Ukrainians who issued a PESEL and then changed documents (for example, applied for a new ID card, changed their address, or had to deal with a temporary restriction of the validity of the PESEL due to departure) should be careful. If you apply for insurance and your PESEL is already marked in the registry as “protected” (for example, in case of suspected fraud), the insurer will not conclude a contract with you until it receives confirmation of the unlocking.
That is, from 2025, even a simple registration of a driver’s license in Poland can be stopped if the PESEL data is not confirmed. And it’s not just fraud – mistakes in documents, changes in PESEL status, delays in updating registers – all of these can cause delays or rejections.
What is “PESEL protection” and how to check your number
The PESEL protection mechanism in Poland was introduced as part of cyber security and personal data protection reforms. Every citizen or person with a legal status of stay (including Ukrainians with PESEL UKR) can independently activate the option to protect their number — that is, prohibit the use of PESEL in any transactions without their own presence or confirmation. This is especially important to prevent cases where criminals under the guise of the rightful owner take out loans, open accounts or… take out car insurance.
You can check the status of your PESEL number on the state portal: https://www.gov.pl/web/gov/zastrzez-swoj-numer-pesel. You can enter the system using the zaufany profile (trusted profile), which is also available for people with temporary protection.
On the portal you can:
– apply for PESEL protection
– cancel protection
– check the number usage log
– find out when and by whom the verification request was submitted
These actions are free, and it is because of the new changes in the law that insurance companies will be able to request access to this information.
How errors in PESEL block car insurance in Poland
For most drivers, the insurance procedure looks formal: apply to the insurance company, submit documents, pay a fee, and the car is insured. But from the moment when the PESEL check becomes a mandatory part of the procedure, any mistake in your documents, any misunderstanding in the databases or accidental blocking of the PESEL can lead to a refusal to conclude a contract or to the automatic cancellation of insurance coverage.
Typical situations:
– you received a PESEL UKR number, but did not check whether it is active and not protected;
– you issued a PESEL, then left Poland for more than 30 days, and your temporary protection status was canceled automatically — at the same time, the number remained, but already inactive for financial transactions;
– you applied for PESEL protection, but forgot about it – and therefore prohibited the use of this number even for your own requests;
– you changed the address, but the old data remained in the register – and the system issues a discrepancy between the PESEL and the actual address.
In each of these cases, registration of compulsory insurance (OC) may be blocked.
Worst case scenario: the driver thinks that the car is insured, but in the UFG database this contract is not activated due to a discrepancy in PESEL. In the event of an accident, such a driver may lose the right to payment or face an administrative fine. According to Polish legislation, driving an uninsured car is punishable by a fine of up to 7,200 zlotys (as of 2025), and in the event of a serious accident, a claim from a third party for compensation for the damage caused.
What needs to be done before obtaining a driver’s license in 2025
In order to avoid problems after the entry into force of the new rules, Ukrainians with PESEL UKR are recommended to do several things now:
- Check the status of your PESEL number on the gov.pl portal – whether it is active, not protected, or has not been changed.
- Confirm the correctness of personal data in the population register (adres zameldowania, status pobytu) — if there is a discrepancy with the passport or car documents, this will cause a delay.
- Remove PESEL protection before taking out the insurance, if you have previously activated it yourself. After concluding the contract, the protection can be returned.
- Choose an insurance company that has already integrated with the PESEL register — not all insurers are ready for this reform from the first days.
- Keep all confirmations – screenshots, PDFs, copies of letters and statuses from the portal – this may be necessary in case of a dispute with the company.
In the event that during the verification it is found that the PESEL is protected, but the applicant is indeed the owner, the process is not completely canceled – the insurance company has the right to send a request to the applicant to temporarily remove the protection. However, this delays the process by several days and can lead to gaps in insurance coverage.
