Minister announces changes that will increase pensions for Homeland War veterans

Among the key changes is a €3 supplement for each month spent in combat, while non-combatants will receive a fifty cent supplement. The changes will also raise the lowest pensions and abolish the last remaining pension reduction measure. All of this will come at a cost to the state budget of €88.5 million.

Deputy Prime Minister and Veterans' Affairs Minister Tomo Medved presented proposed legislative changes on Friday that would result in higher pensions for more than two hundred thousand veterans and their families as of January 1st of 2027.

"With an all-encompassing approach we will ensure a more just system of valorizing participation in defending the sovereignty of the Republic of Croatia. We will do so in such a way that the amount of a pension will be established based on the length of service in defending Croatia with a special emphasis on service in a combat sector. Therefore combat sectors are given a premium. The proposed legislative amendments also cover non-combat sectors, but with a lower increase in comparison to combat sectors," Minister Medved told a press conference in Zagreb.

For his part Minister Medved and Labour, Pension System, Family and Social Policy Minister, Alen Ružić, emphasized the decision to abolish the last remaining pension reduction measure: "What we're doing here is to eliminate the last pension reduction of eight to twenty percent. This covers everyone that falls under Article 9, which is currently some 34 thousand veterans. These changes should increase veterans' pension by an average of €70."

The announced changes to the law regulating pensions for Homeland War veterans were commented on by the opposition Možemo party today. Možemo MP Damir Bakić noted that his party had already put forth its own proposal to raise veterans' pensions, but it was rejected by the parliamentary majority. He also said that the proposed changes do not appear to be an effort to make meaningful changes to how veterans’ pensions are calculated: "The ministry is not trying to substantively change the law, or go into the structure of the legislation that defines veterans' pension, but as far as I can tell, the ministry plans on giving all veterans an addition to their pension based on time spent in combat zones. Another interesting and somewhat surprising thing, at least from what I've heard, is that family and disability pensions are being exempted from this measure."

Source: HRT