The Director of the Pension and Disability Insurance Fund (PIO), Relja Ognjenović, announced that from the beginning of the year until mid-March, the Fund collected 192.3 billion dinars in contributions for pension and disability insurance, which is 4.1 billion dinars more than planned. Ognjenović told Politika that during this period, the Fund collected 21 billion dinars more in contributions compared to the same period last year.
Since the beginning of the year, the Fund has paid out the December and January pensions, and the February pension is in the final stages of disbursement. “For these purposes, 72.8% has been secured from our own resources, while state subsidies for the missing funds for pension payments account for 21.9%, and 5.3% is covered by mandatory transfers from the state, which would exist even if the Fund had sufficient revenues to fully cover pension payments,” said Ognjenović.
When asked if the low unemployment rate of about 8.1% is reflected in the increased contributions and whether the PIO Fund has been able to fully cover pension payments for employees, Ognjenović stated that despite better revenues, pension adjustments have been significant. Since 2022, pension payments have been increased twice a year through regular and extraordinary increases. Starting from 2023, the contribution rate was reduced from 25% to 24%.
“Since 2024, we are seeing a trend of an increasing number of pensioners, which has forced us to rely on support from the state budget,” Ognjenović added.
He clarified that of the total 1,657,325 beneficiaries, pensioners from the employee category make up 85.1%, or exactly 1,410,996 beneficiaries, with an average pension of 53,621 dinars.
“In the case of the January pension, the total amount for paying gross pensions and benefits to the employee category amounts to 89.2 billion dinars. Pensioners from self-employed activities and agricultural pensioners together make up 14.9% of the total number, and their average pensions are lower, which means the required amounts are also lower,” Ognjenović explained.
Regarding the increasing number of pensioners opting for early retirement, Ognjenović mentioned that since 2015, when early retirement as a specific type of entitlement was introduced, a total of 75,215 beneficiaries have taken advantage of it.
Asked how much the budget of the Fund would be relieved if healthcare costs were not covered from the same budget, Ognjenović pointed out that according to the Fund’s financial plan for this year, the amount allocated for healthcare insurance for pensioners is 104.74 billion dinars, or 8.64% of the Fund’s total expenses and disbursements, which are projected at 1,217.72 billion dinars for the current year.
“If the funds for healthcare insurance for pensioners were moved out of the Pension Fund budget, the share of planned transfers from the state budget would decrease from the projected 22% to 14.6%,” Ognjenović concluded.
