Administrative Instruction of the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, which contains new requirements for entitlement to a basic pension in Kosovo, has created difficulties to the applicants. Obtaining the necessary documents, such as proof of property tax payment for internally displaced persons is almost mission impossible. For the relevant ministry, new requirements are a mechanism against possible abuses, while the caucus of the Serbian List in the Kosovo Assembly, characterized the move of the ministry as a violation of the law.
The new administrative instruction of the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection requires all pensioners to prove that they live in Kosovo. Darinka Veljković is an internally displaced person and the user of a basic pension, which amounts to 75 euro. In the center for social work, the new conditions have been waiting for her.
Darinka Veljković needs a certificate of tax payment on the property, because it is a new requirement of the ministry to prove that she lives in Kosovo.
”It is impossible that she pays taxes, because she does not possess any immovable property on her name. The lady who owns the house is located in Niš, and she is handicapped. She cannot go to the notary or anywhere else,” says Miodrag Mitić, Darinka’s friend.
The competent ministry justifies the new conditions for retirees with allegations that some pensioners do not live in Kosovo. The control of applications has shown that a number of pensioners have a fictitious address of residence.
”The aim of this administrative instruction is that only a person who lives in Kosovo receives a pension, and this is not about that someone is against someone, the goal is clear, recipient of the pension has to live in Kosovo and be a citizen of the Republic of Kosovo,” said for RTK2, Bahri Xhaferi, director of the department for pensions.
Former Minister of Labour and Social Protection, and now deputy of the Serbian List, Nenad Rašić claims that the ministry’s decision is illegal, because the law clearly stipulates the conditions for entitlement to a pension.
– In this case, in the problem will be the most vulnerable, such as those over the age of 65, displaced persons and refugees. I hope that this is a technical error, because I would not like to think, as many people already are thinking, that this is directly directed against a community, or against those who are most vulnerable, who are displaced and in this case it is the Serbian community,” said Nenad Rašić, MP of the Serbian List.
Kosovo has 176,000 pensioners, of whom 135,000 receives basic pension, the so-called social assistance to people older than 65 years. If the competent ministry does not withdraw the controversial decision, Serbian representatives in the parliament will appeal to the Constitutional Court of Kosovo.
