Family pension beneficiaries will have the right to work part-time and receive a full pension, but those with the lowest pensions remain excluded from that right, Jutarnji List daily reported on Tuesday.

The government has recently put a bill of amendments to the Act on Pension Insurance to public consultation and intends to pass it in fast-track procedure. The changes are being made, it was explained, in order reduce the risk of poverty and also to fill the gaps in the labour market affected by the COVID crisis.

According to data from the Croatian Pension Insurance Institute (HZMO), there are 17,690 pension beneficiaries that work and receive a pension, which means that the number of pensioners working has tripled thanks to the 2018 pension reform, which enabled them to work and regularly receive a pension.

In May there were 215,977 family pension beneficiaries, and they receive a monthly pension of 2,096 kuna on average, which is lower than the average pension. In most cases, family pension beneficiaries are widows and widowers, and over 27 percent of them can barely make ends meet.

The money needed to enforce the law has been provided in the state budget for 2021 and the projections for 2022 and 2023. The government estimates that 1.47 million kuna will be needed to implement the law this year, 46.2 million kuna will be needed in 2021 and about 68.9 million kuna in 2023.

According to the government’s estimates, the number of family pension beneficiaries working part-time would be about 1,110, in 2022 it would increase to 3,200, and in 2023 to 4,100 pensioners.

The president of the Croatian Pensioners’ Union (SUH), Jasna Petrovic, welcomed the changes but said that their demands had been met only partially.

She explained that at first the government was somewhat justisied in its reluctance to expand the circle of pensioners.

“In many countries, there are different statuses and limits on the amount which pensioners can earn without losing their right to a pension. We are advocating a new model of family pensions, so that in addition to one’s own pension, one has the right to a part of the deceased spouse’s pension, and the limits mentioned mainly apply to countries with such a model,” she said.

We have tried to explain to the government that the regulation on the right to work mostly affects women because as many as 93 percent are women, and they account for the poorest part of the population whose pension is only 29 percent of the average net pay, she added.

Igor Knezevic of SUH said this was a partial solution.

There is still injustice towards those who have already been punished with the lowest pensions, Knezevic told Jutarnji List, stressing that this mistake has to be corrected.