ZAGREB, Dec 2, 2020- The SUH pensioners' union and the "Treca Dob" association of aged persons on Wednesday warned of neglect of elderly people in private aged care facilities, particularly during the pandemic, and called for urgent control of those facilities.

"Even though Minister Josip Aladrovic has informed that the number of welfare inspectors has doubled (to possibly 20) and that criteria for private facilities have been made stricter, in reality, there has not been any improvement," the pensioners' associations said.

Some beneficiaries are in absolute isolation and are not receiving regular health and welfare attention or support and we are getting more and more reports of residents in aged care facilities that their movement is being restricted and personal hygiene has been reduced and that they are not being fed regularly or even being given water. Some are not being showered at all but just wiped down with wet wipes, they say.

The worst thing is that considering they are not allowed to leave these facilities their fundamental rights are being jeopardized, the SUH and the NGO said.

"Due to a shortage in staff, they are not being fed regularly, showered, allowed to step out in the yard, to call family and everything is being justified with the COVID-19 situation."

In those facilities where social welfare workers are employed, they cannot be reached on the phone and are rude to residents and their families, and cover up all the misdoings, SUH said.

The associations called on the Ministry of Labour, Pension System, Family and Social Policy to urgently take action and form an expert inquiry commission that will systematically investigate the situation in these facilities.

They also call for a reform of the welfare inspection and for its de-centralization and for citizen volunteers to be introduced who will be allowed to enter these facilities.

ZAGREB, November 9, 2020 - A new family pension model, to be introduced in 2022 at the earliest, will enable family members to receive a percentage of their deceased family member's pension and keep their own pension, according to unofficial information carried by the Jutarnji List daily.

According to the current family pension system, 70% of a deceased family member's pension can be inherited, but the new beneficiary, who is mostly the widow, must give up their pension if that is a better option for them, Jutarnji List said in its Monday issue.

Family members, namely widows and widowers, common law partners, life partners and informal life partners, are entitled to a family pension if the union lasted for at least three years and if they reached 50 years of age before the death of their partner, providing that the deceased insured person completed five years of insurance periods or ten years of qualifying periods.

The Croatian Democratic Union and the government made a commitment in their programmes to regulate family pensions in a different, fairer way, and a working group to be tasked with drawing up a bill should be established soon, while the bill should be ready by the end of 2021.

The percentage that a family pension beneficiary will receive is to be determined by the working group, but the request by pensioners' associations for it to be 50% of the inherited pension is not realistic, as it would be too much for the state budget to withstand.

The cheapest version would cost over HRK 1 billion a year, so the government says that the new model could only be introduced once the crisis caused by the coronavirus pandemic is over.

(€1 = HRK 7.5)

ZAGREB, October 23, 2020 - The Croatian Pensioners' Union (SUH) and the National Pensioners' Convention of Croatia (MUH), dissatisfied with the amendments to the Debt Enforcement Act, recommended on Friday that enforcement of senior citizens' entire pension be made impossible.

SUH and MUH said that they were against most of the amendments as they were merely a partial solution to the debt enforcement problem so they had given their recommendations.

They recommend that debtors be allowed to repay the principal first and then the interest, otherwise they would never repay their debt.

They want the Croatian poverty line, a monthly income of HRK 2,710, to be introduced as an universal limit below which debt enforcement would not be carried out.

According to SUH and MUH, enforcement of senior citizens' entire pension should not be possible and enforcement should be limited to a quarter of their income, or the national poverty line.

The pensioners' associations also call for the enforcement proceedings to be conducted by courts instead of by notaries public, and that they become faster, cheaper and more transparent.

There are nearly 850,000 citizens aged over 65 in Croatia, and the at-risk-of-poverty rate for that age group is as much as 30.1% compared to 18.3% for general population. Single persons aged over 65 are in the most difficult situation (50.3%).

The average pension in July 2020 was HRK 2,525, which is 37.4% of the average net wage.

SUH and MUH expressed concern that the moratorium on debt enforcement had not been extended since it ended at a time when the coronavirus pandemic situation was worsening and the number of infections was rising.