PIOM shortfall hits €1 billion, SDSM demands explanation

The Pension and Disability Insurance Fund (PIOM) in North Macedonia has a shortfall of €1 billion, SDSM vice-president Jovana Trenchevska said at a press conference, warning that regular pension payments are at risk unless the government explains how the gap will be closed.

Trenchevska described the increase in the deficit as equal to more than 14 percent of the entire state budget and blamed what she called mismanagement by Prime Minister Hristijan Mickoski and the government.

Opposition demands concrete plan and timetable

“PIOM can no longer be funded from contributions; the criminal gang has driven it into unsustainability. From July 1 this year, the PIOM contribution was increased by 1%, that is, the percentage that went to the Employment Agency was redistributed to the Pension Fund. They burdened the state with 4 billion in new debt in just two years — every week a new borrowing for criminal party tenders. Luxuries, a new plane, expensive party events, €5.5 million for a celebration — for the citizens nothing, zero denars, zero measures,” Trenchevska said, calling on the government to specify which measures will reduce the deficit, from which sources the shortfall will be covered and by what date.

She also warned that the second, private pension pillar is endangered, saying proposals range from nationalisation to restructuring and could leave citizens without savings they have paid into for years.

Trenchevska stressed the social impact of the shortfall: hundreds of thousands of workers have contributed to the system and current pensioners depend on their pensions for medicine, food and bills. “Pensions are not a handout from Mickoski. Pensions are a right. The pension fund is a state obligation,” she said.

Social Policy Minister Gjoko Velkovski, a member of VMRO-DPMNE, responded in an interview on the TV programme "360 Degrees" on MRT 1, saying that raising pensions made it necessary to create a certain deficit in the PIOM system. He noted that of the roughly €2.4 billion paid annually in pensions, only €1.4 billion is raised through wage contributions.

Velkovski added that labour migration and fluctuations in registered employment also affected the fund and that the state sets aside about 60 billion denars per year to subsidise pensions. “They will be, whenever the state is the guarantor behind this and stands as such, paid on time as they have in the past two and a half years, since VMRO-DPMNE has been in power and this government functions — they literally receive their pensions on the first,” he said.

The opposition asked directly how sustainable the fund is with a €1 billion deficit and demanded a clear plan from Minister Velkovski explaining the measures and timeline to secure pension payments.

Photo: press material from the event