Since the beginning of last year, the Pension and Disability Insurance Fund (PIO) has been writing decisions to new pensioners in a different way and specifying the amount of the pension, which is why several pensioners, who contacted "Vijesti", believe that they have been harmed, stating that they are several thousand pensioners. which are now being torn apart.
In the course of 2023, when the limit of the minimum pension was regularly increased through regular adjustments, the PIO Fund had the legal interpretation at the time that pensioners were written in the solution their actual pension amount based on the coefficients and years of service, and that it was stated that the amount of the minimum pension is paid if is higher than the amount of their actual pension.
At that time, the PIO Fund separately kept data on the actual amounts of pensions and regularly increased them through three annual adjustments. If it were to happen that the actual pension amount of these beneficiaries exceeded the minimum pension limit with these adjustments, then this pensioner would be paid this higher amount because it is his actual and earned pension that would no longer be "frozen" but would be regularly adjusted.
Since the beginning of last year, the minimum pension limit has been set at 450 euros and is frozen until the end of 2025. However, last year the Pension and Disability Insurance Fund changed its mind and for new pensioners, whose actual pension is below the minimum pension limit, it states in its decisions the amount of 450 euros, which it freezes until the end of 2025. In other words, this group of pensioners does not receive an increased amount in the event that their actual pension, with regular adjustments, exceeds the limit of 450 euros, but they continue to receive this amount.
The pensioner, who spoke to "Vijesti", showed that she retired in January last year and that her actual pension amounted to 444,6 euros, but that she received a decision in the amount of 450 euros, which is frozen until 2026, i.e. 24 months.
At the first subsequent regular adjustment (pension increase) in May 2024, which amounted to 1,93 percent, her actual pension was supposed to amount to 453,2 euros, but she received a frozen amount of 450 euros. Thus, it was deprived of 3,2 euros each for four months until the adjustment in September. That adjustment amounted to 2,4 percent, so her actual and earned pension would amount to 464 euros, but she still received a frozen amount of 450 euros, that is, she was deprived of 14 euros each for the next four months. That is, for these eight months, she was deprived of a total of 60,8 euros.
A pension adjustment of seven percent is announced for January, so her actual pension should amount to 496,5 euros, but she will continue to receive the amount of 450 euros, which is frozen by the current decision until 2026. So in January, she will be deprived of 46,5 euros and will have that much monthly loss for another four months until the adjustment in May, when it will increase even more, and then for even more in September, when she should have had a new adjustment.
She will be at a loss even if the minimum pensions are unfrozen in 2026, because for the new adjustment, she will start with 450 euros, and not with the actual pension of over 500 euros. And for each alignment it will get less than what would follow it.
She compared the amount of her colleague who retired in 2023 and when her actual pension amounted to 423 euros, she received 450 euros, but the Fund separately calculated her actual pension and regularly reconciled it in its records. Thus, her actual pension in January of last year was 432 euros, in May 440,3 euros, and in September it was 451 euros, and then her pension was unfrozen and since then she has received that euro more. This pensioner will receive 482 euros for January if the adjustment is seven percent, while the interviewee of "Vijesti" will remain at 450 euros even though her actual pension at the time of retirement was 20 euros higher than her colleague's.
The PIO Fund issued two opinions on the way of writing the decision on retirement in 2023 and 2024, which create significant differences for pensioners, although they refer to the same law.
"The law is not always fair, but it must not be unfair," said the "Vijesti" interlocutor.
She states that this is an obvious discrimination of a significant number of pensioners who retired in 2024, because pensioners who received decisions in 2023 are now overtaking them in terms of the amount of their pension, even though they had lower initial pensions.
The interviewee of "Vijesti" believes that the Pension Fund, the relevant ministry or the Government should correct this injustice and calculate pensions for them as well as for those who retired in 2023.
"It's better that they fix this themselves than to file lawsuits," said the "Vijesti" interviewee, stating that this year she will be deprived of a total of more than 600 euros and that from next year she will have a permanently lower basis for future adjustments.
A similar calculation exists for several other pensioners who contacted "Vijesti", who retired at the beginning of 2024 and whose actual pension was somewhat lower than the minimum limit of 450 euros.
"In this way, those who paid more into the PIO Fund and had more work experience are being punished, because now those who had actual lower pensions are overtaking us, because their adjustment has not been frozen, but it has been for us. It is about the same law, only the Fund has changed its mind as it writes solutions", said another pensioner who complained to "Vijesta", stating that his real pension should now amount to 470 euros, but that he receives a frozen 450 euros and that the difference his damage continues to increase with each alignment.
The Fund admits that there are differences, but they are justified by interpretation
The PIO Fund officially replied to "Vijesta" that there are two categories of pensioners, those who are entitled to the lowest pension and those who receive the difference to the lowest pension.
This institution did not precisely answer why this injustice arose, that is, why they do not pay a higher amount to new pensioners if their pensions with adjustments exceed the minimum limit. They did not answer how many pensioners there are who in 2024 received solutions in the amount of 450 euros and whose actual pension amount would have exceeded that limit in the meantime, but they still receive a lower frozen amount.
The interlocutor of "Vijesti" from the PIO Fund said unofficially that this number of injured pensioners has exceeded a thousand and that it is increasing every month with new solutions. He said that there were complaints from several pensioners who understood that they were harmed in this way, but that there are also those who do not understand it.
The official response from the PIO Fund sent to the insistence of "Vijesti" reads:
"According to Art. 29 of the Pension and Disability Insurance Act, it is prescribed that the pension cannot amount to less than 450 euros. The above means that in the event that the amount of the pension calculated in the procedure is less than 450 euros, the amount of the pension is determined in the amount of 450 euros. Also, the law stipulates that the lowest pension will not be adjusted in 2024 and 2025. Likewise, the Law stipulates that the beneficiaries of the right to old-age, disability and family pension to whom the pension is paid in the amount between the lowest amount of the pension on September 1, 2023 and the lowest amount of the pension determined by Article 29 paragraph 3 of this law, are entitled to the amount of the difference up to the lowest pension amount, so the same pension is harmonized with regular adjustments, and the difference is paid up to the lowest pension amount. The above means that there are two categories of users who receive the amount of 450 euros, namely users who are recognized as entitled to the lowest pension and users who receive the difference up to the lowest amount of pension", the answer stated.
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