The first meeting of a working group to determine criteria for the introduction of the national pension for elderly people without the minimum required pensionable years of service was held at the Labour and Pension System Ministry on Friday.
The national pension would be intended for older people who do not have the minimum 15 years of service making them eligible for old-age pension and who are above the age of 65 and do not have any other source of income.
The working group is to establish criteria for potential beneficiaries, the property and income census, parameters determining the amount of the national pension and the financial means required so that the legislative framework could be created by the end of 2020 and the first pensions could be paid in early 2021, the ministry said.
The working group, which includes experts from the academic and legal communities and representatives of the social partners and pensioners’ associations, is headed by State Secretary Majda Buric.
Unions: There is no room for national pension
Jasna Petrovic of the Croatian Pensioners Union warned that the main problem would be eligibility criteria and whether the national pension would be tied to the pension system or the social welfare system.
“The main problem is that currently around 9,000 people above the age of 65 receive the guaranteed minimum monthly allowance of HRK 920. On the other hand, the lowest pension for 15 years of service is a mere HRK 1,019. Between those two amounts there is no room for the national pension. Should it total HRK 1,000, it would amount to trivialising and belittling work as a value for which people fought in order to obtain a pension,” Petrovic told Hina after the meeting.
A lot of talks will be necessary in order to produce a solution, even though nobody is denying that the poverty of the elderly population and pensioners, whose poverty rate in 2018 grew to 24.5%, is a major problem, she said.
“The main problem are pensions that are too low and do not leave any room for a serious fight against poverty,” said Petrovic, fearing that the latest initiative would end up being only of a symbolic nature.
