June the 10th, 2022 - 50,000 more people have been registered by the Croatian Pension Insurance Institute since last year, as a marked employment increase following the pandemic and as we head towards the summer season bumps numbers up.

As Poslovni Dnevnik/Jadranka Dozan writes, under the influence of increased seasonal employment which is very common in this country at this time of year, the total number of insured persons at the Croatian Pension Insurance Institute continued to grow throughout the month of May.

According to preliminary data from the Croatian Pension Insurance Institute (HZMO), their number increased by about 23,000 last month alone; with April’s just under 1.6 million at the end of May reaching 1,622,421.

Compared to the end of last May, the number of insured persons at the Croatian Pension Insurance Institute is higher by 48.5 thousand or three percent, while compared to the pandemic-dominated May of 2020, today it is almost 99 thousand or about 6.5 percent more.

The largest number of insured persons is sectorally concentrated in two large fields or blocks - in the manufacturing industry (with almost 250 thousand employees) and trade (with slightly less than 245 thousand people), but the largest increase hasn't been recorded in those sectors.

Over the past year, the number of insured persons in activities related to tourism has unsurprisingly increased the most (the provision of accommodation and food preparation and serving); at the end of May this year, there were 17.3 thousand more insured persons in those sectors today than there were one year ago.

At the end of last month, there were 5,300 more insured persons in the trade sector, at the end of the same month last year, in professional, scientific and technical activities there were almost 4,800 more, and in the processing industry, there were 4,610 more.

The HZMO analysis shows that compared to two years ago, the number of insured persons in the hospitality industry increased by more than 25,000, and a significant increase was recorded in construction, where the number of insured persons increased by almost 12.2 thousand in that two-year period (with the fact that since last May it has increased by four thousand).

Compared to two years ago, the number of those earning in the manufacturing industry has increased by more than 9,300.

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April the 26th, 2022 - Some Croatian pensioners have received a mere 180 kuna more on their bank accounts, but it hasn't come in the form of some sort of generosity from the powers that be, and this system error means they will need to pay it back.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, back at the end of last year, during the process of the payment of pensions to Croatian pensioners, there was a "system error" within the Croatian Pension Insurance Institute, which caused 1258 Croatian pensioners to accidentally receive slightly increased pensions. The amount of wrongly redirected money amounts to 226,080.92 kuna, which means that the average pensioner affected by this error received about 180 kuna or so more on their accounts than they're entitled to.

Deputy director Ivo Bulaja spoke out about the situation for the portal Mirovina.hr/Pension.hr, and he described it as a "minor system error" involving both human and technical factors. He explained that 10 percent of the money wrongly paid out to Croatian pensioners has already been returned, and that the remaining 90 percent is currently being worked on.

''We've sent an inquiry to the Pension Insurance Institute to look into how this mistake was made and in what way Croatian pensioners will have to return the money that doesn't belong to them. Some people who received increased amounts saw for themselves that something was wrong, and they contacted the Bureau about the instructions for the return of the funds. However, it seems that the Institute is heavily insured in such cases because such system errors are even covered in the Pension Insurance Act.

"A person who receives their pension or some other income from the Pension Insurance Institute that doesn't belong to them is obliged to return it to the Institute as they've acquired it without the proper grounds. The obligation to return the funds they've received without grounds to do so exists when the pension or other form of income is paid in a larger amount than the due amount,'' reads Article 166 of the Pension Insurance Act.

In addition, the decision on the recognition of the right to a pension states that the beneficiary is obliged to report to the Institute "any change caused by personal or actual circumstances that affect the right or scope of exercise of this right'' within a period of just fifteen days.

The Croatian Pension Insurance Institute (HZMO) will determine the amount of improperly paid funds ex officio by a decision within their administrative procedure, and the beneficiaries will state in the notification the account number (payment instructions) to which the amount can be returned.

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January the 5th, 2022 - As of today, the Croatian Pension Insurance Institute (HZMO) will have a new tool at its disposal for employers, the brand new electronic e-Control (e-Kontrola) system.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, through this new service, employers, whether legal or natural persons, will be able to electronically submit the documentation required for the control procedure of the data on which the exercise of pension insurance rights in Croatia depends, and also download the control report in electronic form.

The Croatian Pension Insurance Institute explained that their brand new e-Control system is otherwise an upgrade of the electronic business service of HZMO Lana for the establishment of all types of applications for keeping the registry of the Institute.

They also specified how the new service will be available to both existing and new users, authorised persons of taxpayers who are already registered or are registering for the first time within the electronic service e-Application Lana, without the need to come to the Croatian Pension Insurance Institute's counters in person. That alone will absolutely be favourable among the vast majority of people in Croatia who have already had more than their fair share of waiting around in lines.

According to them, this way of doing things speeds up the data control process and reduces administrative costs, all while saving people's time and the need to appear physically.

“With this new service, we're further modernising our data control processes in order to create the preconditions for a faster and cheaper business environment for contributors, legal entities and individuals.

By improving digital business and expanding our range of e-services, we're also actively contributing to the basic business goal of the Croatian Pension Insurance Institute, ie the faster realisation of the pension rights of all future retirees,'' said director Ivan Serdar.

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ZAGREB, 6 July, 2021 - The Croatian Pension Insurance Institute (HZMO) said on Tuesday that the number of pension insurance contributions had been on the rise for five months in a row, and the number of insurees was higher by 3.54% at the end of this June compared to June 2020.

At the end of this June, the contributions were paid by 1,596,112 insurees, or by 54,499 people more than the year before.

Broken down by sector, the highest number of pension insurees was registered in the processing industry (more than 246,000 people covered by insurance contributions).

The rise in the number of insurees has been registered in several sectors, for instance, in construction, IT, the hospitality industry and so on.

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ZAGREB, 6 July, 2021 - The Croatian Pension Insurance Institute (HZMO) said on Tuesday that the number of pension insurance contributions had been on the rise for five months in a row, and the number of insurees was higher by 3.54% at the end of this June compared to June 2020.

The government-sponsored amendments were forwarded to the parliament at the session of the Andrej Plenković cabinet on 1 July.

In May, there were 216,000 family pension beneficiaries, and most of them were surviving spouses whose average monthly pension allowance was HRK 2,096, which was below the average pension. For instance, in May, pension associations reported that the average pension paid out  for February stood at HRK 2,567.

The budget allocation for this purpose has been ensured for 2022 and 2023.

According to the government's estimates, this year, an estimated 1,100 recipients of family pensions can exercise this right to work part-time and continue receiving family pensions. In 2022, the numbers can rise to 3,200 and in 2023 to 4,100 beneficiaries.

(€1 = HRK 7.484635)

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