Pensioners feel deceived by Kosovo government

Kosovo Pensioners' League Secretary Hasan Berisha has said the pension law is not being respected by the Kosovo government.

At “Express Intervista” in KTV, Berisha has said with current pensions in Kosovo, pensioners in the majority cannot even get out of poverty threshold.

“Even 17-18 years after the liberation, pensions are not legally eligible. 16 generations have gone without making their hard - earned pension. As you know after the liberation, U n NMIC had allocated social assistance to 28 euros, 45, 75, 80 and 112. In 2014, there was a law on pension schemes that also contained good judicial performance, but little did the pension justice soften. But in 2016, implementation and a classification of pensions began, where the level of education is placed as the key to the distribution of pensions. The government was willing to assign pensions on the basis of contributions, so there are great injustices in educational degrees. I can finally say that in 2016 a level of anywhere satisfying was reached, and the average pension of contributing pensioners is 172 euros. The highest is 230 euros. With 172 euros we are assuming that a pensioner also has his wife and she gets 75 euros. Both pensions are not enough even to cover daily expenses, as defined by the World Bank”, he has said, adding that in many pensioners benefit from family solidarity.

Berisha has said pensioners feel cheated by the current government, as during the elections they had signed agreements with the PAN coalition, which later won and is leading the government for increasing pensions.

“Pass coalition PAN was offered, we were offered to enable the presentation of the programme to have arranged a conversation and we had an agreement with four points that none of us had ever done. It's been presumption that the increase in pensions by 2018 is 2030 percent. Even in December we have reacted, visited competent organs. The prime minister has received us well, and he has promised that if someone gets paid by one cent, pensions will increase. But apparently they forgot. Pensioners know the budget, the fund can be divided more correctly. We seek social justice and seek our rights because we have shared our pension revenues to have social security to the death. We have written to the government, to the Parliament, to the chief parliament and to the relevant ministries, unfortunately they do not respond. Maybe they don't have tools. But the truth is that they neglect this” category, Berisha has further declared.

He has said pensioners do not have the will to protest because they do not view this as a shooting path, while adding that as a result of severe conditions, there are even cases of suicide among pensioners.

Berisha has said pensioners, however, expect growth, “because it belongs by law to”.

The current pension schema law obliges the government to assess pensions every weekend and determine positive growth on the basis of predetermined criteria. In 2017 not a penny was raised. We have sent letters to all MPs and begged them as the highest body to oversee that many articles are not being implemented by the government. We have a 4 - or 4 - and - a - half - percent request as growth is predicted. We've been begging within real possibilities”, he added.

Berisha has also said that Kosovo pensioners are unable to take pensions from Serbia with any Strasbourg Court decision, and that pensioners are only being deceived over reports that others are benefiting.

Unfortunately, the topic has been consumed and there are many lies. I am telling a truth that there is no Strasbourg decision on Kosovo pensioners. Some lawyers are analoging out a decision by a family that has worked in Mitrovica and with Serbian citizenship living in Novi Pazar. They were issued a decision that they violated their rights as a Bosnian minority in Serbia. The jurists speculate that if they've been accepted, we should also go in numbers. With a decision by Serbia for all pensioners from Kosovo, 119 notes that no two pensions are allowed to be taken in the same republic, as they consider Kosovo part of them. Some have sought to withdraw from Kosovo's pensions to get there. There's no decision, but there's only profit abuses. We ask for pensions from our country, much more since 2008 when we have officially become state”, he has stated at the end.