The President of the Association of Pensioners: One million pensions below RSD 25,000

The position of pensioners in Serbia is unfavorable because the average pension is RSD 27,769, and as many as one million pensioners receive less than RSD 25,000 a month, said the President of the Association of Pensioners of Serbia, Andreja Savic.

In his interview with the UGS „Nezavisnost“ web portal, he reminded that Serbia has slightly less than seven million inhabitants, of which 1.7 million are pensioners, and that 230,000 people are older than 65 who have never been employed and thus have not acquired the retirement rights. That is why one can be rightly assert that Serbia is a country of old people, said Savic.

According to his assessment, „in the past funds of the Pension and Disability Insurance Fund were not used responsibly, as they were allocated to various state projects and investments, i.e. in which pensioners’ money entered to a significant extent.“

He added that, because of that, the payment of pensions is a great burden for state today, as 9.5 to 11 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) is allocated for them, i.e. EUR 4.5 to EUR 5 billion a year.

„A large number of pensioners expressed dissatisfaction following the decision to pay EUR 100 to all adult citizens,“ Savic said, pointing out that the money could have been used to compensate a large part of pensioners whose pensions had been previously reduced.

„It is difficult to say whether state will return the confiscated money to pensioners,“ Savic said, also reminding that the Association of Pensioners, which has around 650,000 members, addressed the most important state institutions on this matter at the end of last year.

Commenting on the ratio of an average pension of less than RSD 28,000 and the average salary higher than RSD 60,000, Savic said that the position of the Association is that the average pension must not fall below 50 percent of the average salary.

Izvor: Beta

Foto: BIZLife