Kosovo pays over 51m euros for pensioners abroad

Izet Dusi, 80, lives in Sweden, but receives a pension payment from Kosovo's state budget.

And 75-year-old Arifja, who has lived for 21 years in Germany, also benefits Kosovo age pensions.

Civil society representatives consider this practice to be interrupted because it is illegal and damages the state budget by over 51m euros annually.

Meanwhile, former Labour and Social Management Minister Skender Recica says that all Kosovo citizens over the age of 65, regardless of where they live, can under law receive a pension if they meet the legal criteria.

What does the Law say about state-funded pension schemes?

Both pension schemes, such as the one of age and the contributor, under this law adopted in 2014, have the same age condition, which is 65 years, and are required to be resident residents of Kosovo and to have identification documents issued by Kosovo's responsible body.

The resident, by law, implies the physical presence of pensioners over 183 days at any time within 12 months of the year.

For contributing pensioners, meanwhile, it is required to present evidence for 15 years working stages before 1999 and not to be users of any other pension scheme paid by the state budget.

On the other hand, in the changes and fulfillments of this law, which was made in 2023, the paragraph was added that “the pension fee is terminated if the pensioner is not resident in Kosovo”.

According to census results, published on December 19th by the Kosovo Statistics Agency (ASK), 173.875 citizens live in Kosovo over the age of 65.

But 202,500 is the number of people, but according to this agency, who received pensions in November of this year from the state budget. Age pensioners, who receive 120 euros per month, are 154,167 and 48.333 people are contributors who receive between 218 and 318 euros, depending on the level of education.

By comparing the census and census data of the AKS, it turns out that 28.625 beneficiaries are more than residents of this age, Free Europe Selat Klokoqi of non-governmental democracy Plus tells Radio.

“If we estimate an average of 150 euros per month, take into account the value of basic pension and the value of contributing pension, it turns out that these persons illegally benefit over 4.2m euros a month or for a year over 51m euros”, says Klokoqi, adding that the law envisions that the beneficiaries of any of these pensions should be residential or stay six months within Kosovo.

So these are not resident residents, but live outside Kosovo, as in Serbia, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden and other countries of Europe and the world.

So these are breaking the law because the same citizen cannot be permanent resident, resident, in two states”, Klokoqi points out.

But some beneficiaries, like Izet Dushi, protect their right.

The shower is about 80 years old, from the city of Vushtrri, but 32 years old live in Sweden.

Dushi emphasises that with more than 20 years of education in the municipality of Vushtrri, he benefits a pension of 220 euros a month, which he says is legal.

He also considers the obligation to present each six months for verification inappropriate and tiring.

The money I'm taking is spending on travel tickets to Kosovo every six months to appear at the retirement office”, he tells Radio Free Europe.

To complete the verification, the 74-year-old Arifya from Pristina will come next in February of Germany.

In the German state, he says he never worked.

It benefits 120 euros a month from Kosovo's state budget as a retirement pension, and about nine years, every February and August, is presented to institutions responsible for verification.

I sometimes regret taking this money because the value is small and I feel sorry for pensioners in Kosovo. There I get social assistance, whose value is several times greater. But believe that I haven't spent a month on my own, I've left it to my son because he doesn't have a big salary, and he uses it for child courses, she says.

Pension beneficiaries are obliged to report every six months to the nearest offices of the Pension Department, operating within the framework of the Ministry of Finance, Labour and Transfers (MFPT).

This minister did not respond to the REL's interest in the question of how many beneficiaries of these pension schemes live abroad.

But, in February, they said that “each pensioner has the condition that he is a resident in Kosovo, for at least 183 days [six months] within the year and will be notified every six months for verification”.

How can you identify those who are not residents?

This issue has been reacted after publishing the census data, highlighting the need for stricter oversight and proper law enforcement.

Klokoqi says that more punctual implementation of the law -- such as field checks -- enables the identification of persons who are not permanent residents of Kosovo and illegally benefit from pension schemes.

“Co-operation agreements between the MPPT, border police and Pristina International Airport would help identify people who come to Kosovo only to be reported once every six months”, he stresses.

That is agreed with Skender Aslan, former director of the Department of Pensions at the Ministry of Finance, even though he considers the process difficult and difficult.

“This is the problem because we have [North] Macedonia, Albania, where it is passed with ID. Sometimes they get identified and sometimes they don't get to be identified. The second, we have the Serb community, they have documents living in Kosovo, they have property, they have addresses, but they live in Serbia, and they come in and they're notified every six months. It's not easy to handle this”, he says.

Aslan recalls that at times they have considered finding solutions to the matter, but it has been impossible to materialize.

It is impossible to find a solution quickly because administrative instruction allows them to come and report twice a year”, he points out.

The other option, according to Klokoqi, is to organise an awareness campaign to inform people who act illegally.

The halting of means for persons living outside Kosovo would create conditions for increasing pensions for those living in Kosovo”, he declares.

But the other thought is former Labour and Social Management Minister Skender Recica.

He says pensioners should not be blamed for violations of the law, as Kosovo institutions themselves have created this opportunity.

“They meet the legal criteria: come twice a year reported”, he says.

Bilateral Social Insurance Agreements

The only solution, according to Recice, is for the Kosovo government to reach bilateral agreements for social security with other states, especially with those where the Kosovo diaspora is concentrated.

When we talk about state agreements with the state, if a citizen of Kosovo is 65 years old and lives in the region or in the states of the European Union, it can benefit social aid there as well. But when the bilateral agreement exists, the pension received in Kosovo is dropped by the benefit assistance in the other country, such as Switzerland. In this way, the citizen takes a part from Kosovo and a part from the other state, but cannot accept two full pensions”, he says.

The MPPT did not respond to what measures it will take to identify these people, but from this the minister said that “Kosovo already has such agreements with Switzerland, Belgium, Albania and Holland”.

In mid-December, a new deal has also been initiated with Slovenia, while the Government is in the process of negotiating similar agreements with Austria, Turkey, Northern Macedonia and Montenegro, the ministry said.

So far, however, by the MPPT, said that “only 26 citizens living in Switzerland and Belgium receive contributions on the basis of these agreements”.

In addition to pensioners profiting pensions from the state budget, the Government of Kosovo since 2021 has started to share monthly additions for children of Kosovo citizenship aged 0 to 16.

Even in this category, the results of the AKS census have shown a greater number of payments than the number of resident children in Kosovo.

According to these data, over 372,000 children of these ages live in Kosovo, while in July of this year, the Finance Ministry told Radio Free Europe that the number of beneficiaries has reached over 404,000 children.

In this regard, Finance Minister Hekuran Murati, during a news conference on December 27th that he does not know the exact number of children who do not live in Kosovo and are beneficiaries of additions. But, he added, there have been some cases where children's families have been identified as not residents in Kosovo, and they have been interrupted with additions.

Children benefit from 20 euros a month, while those who come from family with three or more children receive 30 euros a month.

In addition to pensions and regular monthly extensions, the Kosovo government allocated a 100-euro sum for these categories on the New Year's holiday occasion.