GOOD news arrives for pensioners!

Economist expert Romina Radonshiqi has provided clarifications regarding pensioners’ concerns about not receiving the bonus in February, emphasizing that pensioners who have not benefited from it should file a complaint on the e-Albania platform.

According to her, it is impossible for a pensioner to receive the bonus in one month and not receive it the following month due to any change in the pension.

“In fact, this is impossible and I say this because there has been no indexation that would make you think that someone who receives it in January cannot receive it in February. This means that all pensioners who did not receive the bonus in February should submit a complaint through e-Albania so that they have the opportunity to receive it,” she said.

The expert stressed that there have been cases where pensioners who submitted requests were able to receive their back payments. “If there have been pensioners who did not receive the bonus and submitted a request through e-Albania, we have pensioners who were able to receive the bonus for the three months they had not received it, meaning for January, February and March. So today the Social Insurance Institute has corrected the mistake made by not giving some pensioners the bonus they were entitled to,” she said.

She added that reports claiming that some people received the bonus in January but not in February do not make economic sense. “This news about individuals who received the bonus in January but not in February seems meaningless to me, because from January to February or from February to March there has been no pension indexation,” the expert said.

According to her, pensioners should file a complaint with the Social Insurance Institute through e-Albania if they have not received the bonus. “All pensioners who have not received it should submit a request, that is, a complaint to the Social Insurance Institute through e-Albania in order to benefit from it,” she emphasized.

Meanwhile, the expert also clarified a misunderstanding that pensioners may have had regarding how the bonus is received.

“Perhaps pensioners assumed that with the addition of the 8,000 lek bonus, the amount received in January would increase again in February. This is not the case. If someone received 208,000 lek in January, they will receive 208,000 lek every month until the end of the year. The increase is 8,000 lek and it is constant; it is not that an additional 8,000 lek is added every month,” the expert explained.

What is happening with the pension scheme?

On the other hand, the government has transferred 167 million euros of unspent funds from the 2025 budget to the Special Pension Fund, with the aim of strengthening the financial sustainability of the scheme at a time when the system is facing structural pressures and many pensioners live close to the poverty line. According to economic expert Elvin Meka, this is an unusual and unprecedented approach aimed at addressing the problems of pension reform.

“It is a way to help or support the pension scheme, which apparently in the coming years will face an even greater burden in terms of its weight on the state budget, not only due to pension increases and indexation, but also because of the nominal increase in numbers, with more and more people retiring,” the expert said.

According to him, this intervention does not represent a structural step in supporting the pension scheme. “It does not fall within the strategic concept, but rather within a tactical and operational one,” he underlined. Meka emphasizes that, in a normal situation, such funds should not exist and, with improved administration, they should be reduced or eliminated completely.

“This government initiative creates such funds, which in one way or another go toward supporting the pension scheme,” expert Meka said. For the expert, a decisive factor for reform remains the role the government will take in creating the second pillar of the pension scheme. “The discussion of the reform has to do with whether the government will decide or not to be a co-financer of the second pillar of pensions.

This is the real change expected, or the one that will set the tone for the upcoming pension reform,” he said. In the expert’s assessment, the current intervention is an element that helps fill the gaps in the scheme, with the aim of preventing the pension fund’s burden on the state budget from increasing further.

“KORÇA BOOM”