Veličina fonta
Sivi ton
Kontrast
Disleksija
en
03.01.2024

News regarding the application of legal regulations from 1 January 2024

The changes introduced by the pension reform from 1 January 2024 are prescribed by the Act on Compulsory Pension Funds (Official Gazette, no. 156/23), the Pension Insurance Companies Act (Official Gazette, no. 156/23), the Pension Insurance Act (ZOMO) and the Act on Supplement to Pensions Acquired in Accordance with ZOMO (Official Gazette, No. 156/23). We provide you with a brief overview of the most important changes below.

• Abolition of the entry fee

The entry fee, which, up to this point, was calculated at the rate of 0.5% of each contribution payment and forwarded to compulsory pension companies, is abolished by the amendment of Article 63 of the ZOMF <Act on Compulsory Pension Funds>. Starting with 1 January 2024, the entry fee for all companies shall not be calculated on the pillar II contribution payments that are connected by insured persons.

• Official allocation of newly employed persons into OMF according to new criteria

Amendments to Article 91 of the ZOMF stipulate that if an insured person does not select a pension fund within one month of setting up the compulsory pension insurance, REGOS will allocate them ex officio to a category A pension fund, provided that there are 10 or more years left until the reference day. An insured person who has less than 10 years left until the reference day will be allocated to a category B pension fund and, according to these amendments, there is no longer any possibility of official allocation of newly employed persons to a category C OMF.

• Official allocation of category A OMF members to a category B OMF after the prescribed deadline

Amendments to Article 91 of the ZOMF stipulate that a pension fund member who was assigned ex officio to a category A OMF will be assigned ex officio to a category B OMF upon the expiry of a 15-year period from the date of allocation to a category A OMF unless they have previously personally chosen the category of the pension fund.

• Amendments to the Statement on Pension Selection from the pillars I and II

Amendments to Article 104 of the ZOMF stipulate the obligation of REGOS to provide fund members with a notification on the informative pension calculation in order to help them make a decision on the selection of pension. It is prescribed that if a fund member chooses a pension from the pillars I and II but does not conclude a pension contract with MOD within one year from the date of the remittance of funds to MOD, MOD will, under the conditions and within the time limit prescribed in Article 126 of the MOD Act, transfer the remittances to the state budget, less the amount of the actual costs incurred by MOD in relation to keeping those funds. After transferring the funds to the state budget, HZMO will determine the pension for the user as if they had been insured only in the compulsory pension insurance based on generational solidarity.

New forms of Statements A and B on Pension Selection are available on the REGOS website.

• Amendments prescribed by the Pension Insurance Companies Act

Amendments to Article 112 of the Pension Insurance Companies Act from 1 January 2024 introduce additional flexibility of the conditions for a lump-sum payment to beneficiaries of the basic old-age or anticipated old-age pension. It is stipulated that such a payment can be contracted if the basic old-age or basic anticipated old-age pension from the pillar I is higher than the lowest pension according to the Pension Insurance Act (ZOMO).

The lump-sum payment disbursed at the beneficiary’s request is increased from the current 15% of the total remittance to MOD to a maximum of 20%. The pension beneficiary will be able to choose the lump-sum payment in the amount between 0% and 20% of the total remittance to MOD before concluding the contract.

For funds remitted to MOD before the date of entry of this Act into force (1 January 2024), the beneficiary has 12 months to conclude a pension contract with MOD, starting from the date of entry of the Act into force. If they do not do so, MOD will remit the funds to the state budget within 30 days of the expiry of that period. In that case, HZMO will determine the pension as if the beneficiary had been insured only on the basis of generational solidarity.

• Vesting age for an old-age pension for women in 2024

Pursuant to the Pension Insurance Act of 1 January 2024, amendments with regards to the change of the reference day for exercising the right to an old-age pension for women entered into force. According to Article 180 of the ZOMO (Official Gazette, no. 102/19) an insured person – a woman, becomes entitled a pension upon completing 15 years of pensionable service and, in 2024, when she is 63 years and 6 months old.

• Amendments prescribed by the Act on Supplement to Pensions Acquired in Accordance With ZOMO

Amendments to the Act on Supplement to Pensions Acquired in Accordance With ZOMO increase the supplement to the portion of the basic pension from the pillar I from 20.25% to 27% for the pensionable service completed since the introduction of the pillar II, i.e. from 1 January 2002 onwards. This provides the beneficiaries of pensions from both pension pillars with a uniform rate of 27% supplement to the pension from the pillar I, regardless of when the pensionable service was completed (before or after the introduction of the pension pillar II).

Increase of the supplement to the basic pension from the pillar I from 20.25% to 27% for the pensionable service completed from 1 January 2002 will affect the increase of the basic pension from the pillar I and thus the increase of the total pension for the beneficiaries of pensions from both pillars.