The authors try to analyze, what is the logic of the system of family benefits and family tax expenditures in contemporary Poland and what presumptions about beneficiaries does it entail. In their view, it is hard to say, whether the aforementioned benefits are designed to support the income of the poorest families, since, as a result of family tax expenditures and the way of means-testing family benefits, quite a few beneficiaries are people of relatively good income status. They conclude that this kind of inconsistency is simply a cost of democracy, and social policy - especially when it concerns families - should not be overly rational