Some 540,000 pensioners, or almost half of all in Croatia, eke out a living on a monthly pension of 2,000 kuna (€269) or less, including some 95,000 of them getting just 232 (€31) per month, according to data released by the state pension fund (HZMO) on Monday.

At the end of March, there were 1.45 million people paying contributions into the fund which pays pensions to 1.14 million retirees. This corresponds to an employee/pensioner ratio of 1.27, and indicates that the system is dangerously close to collapsing, Slobodna Dalmacija reported.

The latest burden that has been added to the already strained system was the recent war veterans’ bill which was passed in November 2017, and which allowed some 5,000 veterans of the 1991-95 independence war to apply for state pensions. In total, some 93,000 pensioners receive their pensions based on various laws and regulations on the rights of war veterans.

On the other end of the scale, the highest state pension category, those amounting to 8,000 kuna (€1,077) or more per month, were received by around 4,800 retirees.

(1€ = 7.43 kuna)