Beneficiaries of so-called proportionate pensions in Montenegro did not receive a one-time aid of 150 euros from the European Union aid package yesterday, although other pensioners with the lowest incomes and beneficiaries of social assistance received that amount.
The Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare, which coordinated this aid package, did not officially explain why this category of materially disadvantaged citizens was left out. The unofficial explanation, which "Vijesti" received, as well as the pensioners who contacted the ministry and the Pension and Disability Insurance Fund (PIO) yesterday, is that the state institutions do not know the total amount of income of those pensioners, that is, they only know the amount of pension they receive from the Montenegrin PIO Fund , but not the amounts they receive from the pension funds of other states.
Proportionate pensioners are pensioners who have acquired the right to a pension by combining the length of service they had from two or more former Yugoslav republics, based on interstate agreements. The pension fund of each country has calculated the amount of pensions that should be paid to them for the length of service they had in its territory.
There are about 11 thousand beneficiaries of these pensions, while the unofficial estimate is that seven to eight thousand have a total of pensions that is lower than the Montenegrin minimum pension of 270 euros, which was the income limit for the distribution of this aid. At last year's protests by pensioner groups, data was announced that there are two to three thousand of these pensioners with a total income of less than 100 euros, as well as that they are "below any poverty line".
The PIO Fund said that they only performed the technical part of the work, that is, that they passed the money to the categories according to the decision of the Government, that is, the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare.
The Ministry unofficially said that it is difficult to explain this group of pensioners to the European administration, and that there is no precise data on their issues.
"We cannot have reliable data on the sum of their proportional 'parts' of pensions precisely because of these incomes from abroad. There are more unknowns here, because someone can receive a small amount of a proportionate pension from Montenegro and have the right to an independent pension in another country, the amount of which is very difficult to obtain official information if the pensioner does not provide it himself", it was explained to "Vijesta" .
And last year it happened that this group of pensioners did not receive assistance when it was distributed to other materially disadvantaged categories of the population.
They received one aid only at the end of last year, which was distributed by the Government.
Minister of Finance Aleksandar Damjanović, when asked by "Vijesti" whether pensioners with so-called proportionate pensions will also receive help, he said that they would and that in cooperation with the PIO Fund and the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare they are preparing a systemic legal solution for this group of pensioners.
As it was explained at the time, one of the options was that pensioners should prove themselves that the sum of all their incomes is lower than the lowest pension in Montenegro, and then they would receive a special amount of compensation that would be the difference between the minimum pension and the sum of their incomes.
This group was not even affected by the increase in the minimum pension limit last year, but the amount of the Montenegrin portion of their pensions was increased by the percentage of the regular adjustment.
Aid that was distributed yesterday to socially vulnerable categories in the total amount of 8,5 million euros provided by the aid package of the European Union. This package is part of the Energy Support Package of the European Union to Montenegro, which is worth a total of 30 million euros and is intended for citizens, institutions and companies that have suffered damage due to the energy crisis.
At the Government session, the Minister of Labor and Social Welfare Admir Adrović said that the ministry, in cooperation with the ministries of capital investments and finance, determined the method of payment of these 8,5 million euros.
150 beneficiaries of the lowest pension received 40.322 euros each, and 6,5 million were set aside, followed by 104 beneficiaries of temporary benefits from the PIO Fund (15.600 euros) and 446 beneficiaries of material security for veterans (66.900 euros).
In addition, 350 families of beneficiaries of financial support received a one-time EUR 6.270 aid, which is EUR 2,1 million.
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