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Regional Training on Informatisation and Normalisation of Social

Security Databases in South East Europe

8th - 9th February

Belgrade

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INTRODUCTION
The Kosovo Social Protection System is in a very early stage of development.
At this point in time, legal infrastructure regarding social security is being
created by institutions in order to create a more comprehensive social
protection system. Several laws have been promulgated by the Kosovo, several other
laws are in different stages of the adaptation process.
It is important however, that all legislation adopted in Kosovo is very modern,
democratic and conform to main international documents and treaties.
Source : SOK

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CONCEPT AND SOURCES OF SOCIAL SECURITY LAW

Social protection in Kosovo is still being developed and is presently

composed of the basic pension scheme, social assistance scheme and
the personal savings scheme .

The healthcare insurance is in the process of being established.

Presently, the healthcare system is maintained by contributions from

the state budget and participation of the patients, but that will be
changed with the health law and law on health insurance that
is currently awaiting the approval of the Kosovo Assembly.

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THE PERSONAL SCOPE OF APPLICATION

Social welfare encompasses both social services and benefits, including social assistance in
cash. Social services are provided by public institutions to children, families and adults
who need counseling and institutional care.

SOCIAL RISKS(CONCEPT)
Cash benefits are designed for risked to the social point of view:
The Social Assistance Scheme of Kosovo provides support to families that include
members who are: a) aged sixty-five (65) years or older;
b) disabled persons; and
c) other categories of persons unable to work or are not presently working
Basic pension (old-age) scheme
Is a general non-contributory scheme funded by government. It is conceived as a flat
rate monthly tariff possible for all citizens of Kosova, and Kosovo refugees outside
Kosova, aged 65 years and more, regardless of the fact if they have used to work or
not, and regardless of the fact that they might or might not enjoy a pension from
abroad. In this sense, this is an assistance program for older ages. It is funded by the
KCB, which has been applied since mid 2002.

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Basic pension ² OLD AGE -

Basic pension is launched in an equivalent line to the extreme poverty

(food basket), it started with 28 euros / month and it is adjusted each year
to reflect the increasing cost of living. For 2003, it was at the level of 35
euros / month, while for 2004/05/06/07, at 45 euro / month. From 2008,
the amount of payments has been revised, starting with the pension
scheme for former contributors to the system, who prove the work
experience of 15 years, and who have over 65 years. On the basis of an
Administrative Instruction, an additional amount of 35 euros per month
is provided to these beneficiaries, by which monthly benefit for about
28,000 retired persons reaches 80 euros per month (45 euros for the basic
pension + additional 35 euros).
The number of beneficiaries in the two schemes (basic pension scheme
and contribution based
scheme) in the month of January 2011 was 141165 in total
Basic pension 110251
Contribution BP 30914
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Disability pension scheme

It is regulated by the relevant law, and is implemented since July 2004. This scheme is public,
universal, and financed by public funds. Acceptance criteria are strong: permanent and full
disability serves as eligibility criteria for the scheme. Disability pensions are paid to local
people aged 18-64, according to the disability criteria or 100% work disability.
The Law on Limited Disability foresees a certain number of benefits not in money, but these
additional benefits which must be provided by other central and local bodies, are currently
not being implemented. The actual mount in 2011 has been increased 45 euro but in table
index for of monthly benefits is 40 euros per month. In this scheme the situation is as
follows, and there are over 20,000 beneficiaries.

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Also in this report you can see a list of nationalities who benefit from Disability pension
MLSW

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Trepça pension scheme

Speaking of the pension schemes for Trepca workers, we must

specify that this scheme is dedicated only to underground
miners. It has started to function since 01/07 2003,and 4642
miners across Kosova are part of the scheme. Monthly amount
for the year 2003/04 was 40 euros, while for 2005 and to date
the amount is 50 euros.

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Scheme of War invalids and relatives killed in war

This scheme was established by the Government in order to assist war

invalids and relatives of those killed during the war. Currently there
are over 11,700 people benefiting from this scheme. A characteristic
of this scheme is that we have some classification of beneficiaries;
invalids of war, civil war invalids and families of the martyrs,
families who have missing persons, war invalids care-takers.

The amount of benefits to an individual or family may vary according

to the disability, and the payment is 54.60 euros, which is the
minimum amount for disabled beneficiaries as civilian invalid,
which depends on the percentage of disability, and a maximum
amount of 351 euros,

The benefit scheme for families that attend disables children of ages

from 1-
1-18 years.

It is a new scheme that has started from the beginning of this year
(2009), and it will cover a category of persons with permanent
disabilities who until now have not had care and material benefits
from the state. Beneficiaries of this scheme will be families who care
for children with limited permanent abilities aged 1-18 years

This includes several categories; blind people, physically challenged

children, and children who can not meet their physiological needs
and are in a need for 24 hour care. Monthly amount of the benefit
will be 100 euros per child. Since we are in the beginning of this
phase of the scheme, we still do not have the actual number of
beneficiaries, but under some preliminary calculations it is expected
that about 3000 people are to benefit from this scheme.

m Kosovo Pension Savings Trust
Kosovo Pension Savings Trust (Trusti) has been established in 2002 to
administer and manage mandatory (and voluntary) pension
contributions of Kosova's employees.

Pension contributions saved by Kosova·s citizens during their

employment, are kept in individual accounts of contributors.
Administering these individual accounts is a legal responsibility of
Trusti, while savings remain a property of account holders.
Although a private property, the mandate of these savings is
specific ² they are to be used only for retirement.

Pension assets are invested, according to prudent investment principles

set by law. The investments are made in order to increase the value
of participants· accounts, on the long run, in order to provide the
best possible pension on their retirement. Trusti investments are
done in different asset classes, markets and industries, to reduce the
possible investment risk.
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SOCIAL RISKS AND BENEFITS-general

There are cases when the benefits from one scheme do not exclude the right to
benefit from other schemes.
The table below presents two indicators of social protection expenditure,
Compared with countries of the region.

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OLD AGE

The pension system is made up of three pillar based on the system pay-as-you-go scheme
with the current three pillar pension scheme:
-First pillar: Old age (basic pension) and incapacity to work means a pension paid by the
pension administration to all persons habitually residing in Kosovo and who have
reached pension age;
-Second pillar: Compulsory individual pension savings
-Third pillar: Regulates the legal framework for supplementary voluntary pensions.

DECEASES
Law on Disability Pension is on the progress to be adopted by the
Government of Kosovo, as Compared with the ILO Convention 102, many
groups in Kosova are still without protection
in terms of social risk, and in terms of material coverage, there is still no:
‡ protection for people with disabilities, for the short term (illness, maternity)
‡ protection for the unemployed
‡ family benefits
‡ coverage for accidents at work and occupational diseases
‡ medical care (although there is remission from payments for beneficiaries of social
welfare payments under the scheme of co-payments)

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INCAPACITY FOR WORK

Disability to work is regulated with Law No. 2003/23 of the Kosovo

Assembly on DisabilityPensions in Kosovo,
administered by the Kosovo Pension Administration.
Disability to work characterized as short term disability to work or
long term incapacity to work. The Disability Pension only applies to
persons with severe and permanent disability.
There is a set of criteria that the applicant needs to fulfill and
procedures that need to be followed in order to receive incapacity
benefits. The first condition/rule is that the injury, disease or
disability must have taken place no less than on year prior complete
application.

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UNEMPLOYMENT

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HEALTH CARE
As a lack of the Health Insurance , Ministry of Health (MoH), as the highest health
authority in the Republic of Kosovo is responsible for the health system which in the
public sector is offered at three levels:
Primary Health Care, which is offered by the Main Centers of Family Medicine, which
implement this responsibility through the Municipal Directorates for Health and Social
Welfare.
At the secondary level of care,mental health services are provided to patients and their
family.
Tertiary health care is implemented by the Kosova University Clinical Center with clinics,
institutes and its services, University Clinical Dental Center of Kosova, the National
Institute of Public Health, National Center , National Institute of Medicine of Labor, and
Center of
sports medicine.

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CARE

a
a includes the provision of direct social care,
counseling, or, in
exceptional circumstances, material assistance, for the benefit of
people in need.
a means the provision of help with domestic duties,
personal care, mobility,
communication or supervision. It can be provided in a person·s own
home, in a specialist day
centre or in a residential home.
is a systematic and programmed process of providing
information, advice and
guidance aimed at helping an individual or a family to improve their
social or interpersonal
circumstances.

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NEED

| is meant to the people regardless of status or place of

origin, who is in need of social services because of:

1. children without parental care

2. children with antisocial behavior
3. juvenile delinquency
4. disordered family relationships
5. advanced age
6. physical illness or disability
7. mental disability
8. mental illness

Need is divided into to categories. The criteria for eligibility of benefits

from this scheme are
defined as follows:
First Category Criteria

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In order for a family to be eligible for the First Category, all members
of the family should be qualified as dependent

1. Persons over 65 years of age;

2. Adults with permanent disability to work;
3. Guardian of the person with permanent disability to work or of a
person above 65 years of age who need full care;
4. Dependent children under 15 years of age;
5. Dependent children of ages 15-18 years that continue to be full-time
students;
6. Single parent with children under 15 years of age and without other
adults in the family;
7. The family should not own more than half (0.5 ha) hectares of land.

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Second Category Criteria
In order for a family to be eligible for the Second Category, the family
should fulfill the following Criteria's:
1. All members of the family should be unemployed;
2. Every member of the family that is capable of work should register in the
Employment
Bureau and get certification from this institution that he/she is capable for
work and is searching for work;
3. The family should have no income
4. The family should not own more than half (0.5 ha) hectares of land.
The family should have at least one child under the age of 5 or should have
full custody over an orphan less than 15 years of age.
Maximum monthly amount for the beneficiaries of the assistance is
determined referring to the line of extreme poverty (food basket) and
defined according to the number of family members. It should be indexed
annually by the Government to reflect any changes in the cost of food
basket.

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FINANCING SOCIAL SECURITY

All the schemes are financed by the state budget with the exception of the
second and third pillar of the old-age pension scheme. The basic pension
and the invalidity pension are financed by the Consolidated Budget of
Kosovo.
The savings pension scheme and the supplementary pension scheme are
covered by equal contributions of employers and employees.
Healthcare is also fully financed by the Consolidated Budget of Kosovo,
but users of health services need to pay participation fees.
The financing aspect for all schemes becomes important for two reasons.
Budget constraints and price trends in one hand and inadequate
economic development in other hand derives the pressure for the large
number of beneficiaries included in the schemes. These issues are
narrowing the maneuvering space of policies aimed to ensure the fiscal
sustainability in one hand and to protect from the people in need.

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Edmond Murati
Head of IT- DAPK
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