Skopje, 16 August 2023 (MIA) — Representatives from the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy, the Pensioners Association and the Pension and Disability Insurance Fund will be reviewing the minimum pension taking into account the poverty line set by the World Bank and are expected to find a solution by the end of 2023, Minister of Labor and Social Policy Jovanka Trenchevska said in response to reporters' questions on pensioners nationwide protesting over pensions.

Minister Trenchevska said she would officially initiate the forming of this working group at the government's next session. The working group was to also consider other countries' examples of minimum pensions, she added.

According to the new methodology developed in 2022 in line with the rise of living expenses and the average salary increase, Trenchevska said the minimum pension in September would be at least 13,300 denars.

"We are waiting for the latest data from the State Statistical Office," she said, adding that the pension increase would be based on those figures. "Possibly six percent, possibly more than 6 percent. It all depends on the statistics."

Asked if the minimum pension could be increased to 18,000 denars per month, which was one of the pensioners' demands, the labor minister said this would threaten the stability of the Pension Fund.

Trenchevska said: "18,000 is an unrealistic sum because our minimum salary is 20,000. This would put an additional strain on the Pension Fund and put us in a situation to ask ourselves, after three or four months, how to pay out all 330,000 [pensioners]. As a state, as a minister, as a government, we need to consider the Pension fund's stability. We need to consider the timely payment of pensions so every month all 330,000 pensioners receive their pensions."

She also said pensions were an economic and not a social category.

"The pension to be paid out depends on how much we have invested in the pension and disability insurance system during our working life. It is unfair to say that people who have worked 15 years and people who have worked 40 years are equal. Having worked 40 years, you absolutely, through your contributions to the system, expect to have a higher pension," the labor minister said.

"Most of those retired citizens receiving minimum pension have worked 15 years," she continued. "If the system were not based on solidarity as it currently is, they would be receiving even lower pensions." mr/