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Kosovo increases pensions by 20%

2024-10-07 15:00:34, Kosova & Bota CNA

The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, announced that his Government has decided to increase the pensions financed by the state by 20 percent.

The increase will be effective from this month, the Prime Minister emphasized during a press conference.

He announced that pensions determined by the Law on war categories will increase by 20 percent from January 2025.

This law includes the families of martyrs, invalids, veterans, members of the former Kosovo Liberation Army, victims of war sexual violence, civilian victims and their family members.

Kurti said that before increasing these pensions, "the change in the tables that is part of the law as an appendix" is needed.

The pensions that will increase from October are: basic age pension, full and partial contributory pension, disability pension for children and adults, pension for blind people, for paraplegic and quadriplegic people, family, work invalid and early retirement for Trepca workers.

According to the Minister of Finance of Kosovo, Hekuran Murati, over 300,000 pensioners will benefit from this increase.

He said that the total budget of all pension schemes is about 500 million euros per fiscal year, while an additional 100 million euros will be allocated annually after this increase.

The basic age pension will increase to 120 euros, the contributory pension for the first category will increase to 218 euros, for the second category 237 euros, for the third category 256 euros and for the fourth category 318 euros.

Until now, pensions in Kosovo ranged from 100 to 265 euros.

The last increase, to 100 euros, was made at the beginning of 2022, as part of the Economic Revival Package, which the Government of Kosovo approved at the time of the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the end of September, the United Trade Union for Education, Science and Culture (SBASHK) submitted to the Presidency of the Assembly of Kosovo a petition requesting the amendment of the Law on pension schemes financed by the state.

In 2022, trade unionists even held protests to request the amendment of an article of this law, through which it is required that the beneficiaries have 15 years of pension contributions before January 1, 1999.

However, neither Kurti nor Minister Murati mentioned this issue in Monday's conference.

The law on pension schemes financed by the state has been implemented since 2014./ REL