Minister Mrsic was commenting on IMF recommendations that Croatia should increase pension eligibility age to 67 for men and women at a pace of six months each year and claimed that Croatia would not be able to avoid this measure as its population was ageing and the pensioner employee ratio, which is currently 1: 1.18. was increasingly unfavourable and if the current system were to continue, between 2040 and 2050 the average pension would be barely 22% of the average wage and future pensioners would literally go hungry.

One of the measures to prevent this is to raise the pension eligibility age which has been done in 14 European countries and Croatia will do the same when the remaining EU countries do so and that would be between 2020 and 2030, said Mrsic.

He announced a pension indexation which means that pensions are ti increase by 1.25% as of March 1 and that backpays for January and February would be paid in the April pension payout.

He recalled that as of March 1, banks would not be able to seize more than one-third of a pension even though loan contracts signed before then stipulate seizure to be possible on the entire amount of pension allowances. This could lead to a slight delay in pension payments for these cases, he added.

The minister announced that Croatia had one of the highest percentages of beneficiaries of disability pensions and that a commission had been set up to investigate possible fraudulent cases of such pensions. He announced changes to the entire system whereby prior to a disability pension being granted beneficiaries would undergo training for an alternative workplace which would be financed by a Rehabilitation Fund and only then, if this was not an option, would such pensions be granted which would also be reviewed at regular intervals to determine if any change of circumstances arise.