Pensioners will no longer be required to appear every six months before state authorities to prove that they are alive, in order to continue receiving their pension.
This decision comes from the Supreme Court, which declared the administrative instruction that provided for this rule illegal. The decision was based on the lawsuit of E.Sh.
The decision states that the Ministry has the responsibility to monitor whether the pensioner is alive, exempting citizens from this duty. Consequently, pensioners cannot be penalized if they fail to report to the authorities.
For more, read the full Supreme Court decision:
The Supreme Court has approved as well-founded the claim of the plaintiff E.Sh., filed against the defendant Ministry of Finance, Labor and Transfers (MFLT) - Pensions Department.
Article 4, paragraph 2, of Administrative Instruction No. 05/2015 (MLSW) on Notification Procedures, Suspension from Payment and Return of Funds in Cases of Pension Abuse has been declared illegal and repealed.
Article 5, paragraphs 1, 2, 3 and 4 of this Instruction have been declared illegal and repealed.
Plaintiff E.Sh., has filed a lawsuit against the defendant, MFPT, for the repeal of the normative sub-legal act - Administrative Instruction No. 05/2015 (MLSW) On the Procedures for Notification, Suspension from Payment and Return of Funds in Cases of Pension Misuse.
After reviewing the case, the Supreme Court found that the paragraphs that provide for consequences for pensioners, such as the withholding of pensions, are not in accordance with the law and as such are illegal.
If the pensioner is not notified as prescribed, the Ministry is obliged to monitor existing sources of information in order to identify pensioners who have died. Therefore, the primary responsibility for verifying the pensioner's life status lies with the public body itself and not with the citizen. This provision creates an obligation for the Ministry to use every administrative mechanism and every official source of information before taking restrictive measures against the pensioner. The law has provided for a mechanism that relies on active verification by the Ministry and not on a disproportionate burden on the pensioner.
The Constitution of the Republic of Kosovo stipulates that by-laws are valid only as long as they are in accordance with the law, while such a by-law regulation, which materially affects the rights of citizens, such as the treatment of pensions, can only be made by law and not by by-law.
The Ministry's competence is limited only to regulating the technical method of suspension from payment, and in no way to creating obligations, deadlines or material consequences that are not provided for by law.
Law No. 04/L-131 on State-Funded Pension Schemes does not contain any element that would give the Ministry the authority to create material deadlines, impose pension losses or change the beneficiary's status in case of non-notification.
Suspension of pension payment should be the last measure, not the first. For this reason, the Supreme Court finds that the provisions of AI No. 05/2015, which treat non-reporting as a necessary reason for suspension and associate it with irreversible material consequences, are unlawful.
