EN
The objective of this study is to introduce the topic of old-age infirmity risk and to analyse the sources of its financing in the current legal framework, based on social insurance retirement benefits paid by the Social Insurance Institution. The problems of estimating the scale of old-age infirmity risk in Poland will be considered, and on the example of the average cost of living in a nursing home in selected cities conclusions and recommendations on possible sources of financing institutional long-term care in the future will be presented. Undertaking a discussion of the economic dimension of old age is justified primarily by the assumption that financing the specific needs of the elderly can generate extraordinary costs, both for individual households and for the public sector as a whole.