Pensioners will receive the final adjustment of their pensions for 2026 in September, along with the payment of their August pension. Federal Minister of Labor and Social Policy Adnan Delić confirmed in an interview for Federal Television that the total increase in pensions this year will amount to 15.08 percent, while pensioners will be paid the difference between the previous and final calculation.
Speaking about the September payment, Delić clarified that it is not a new, separate increase, but the final calculation of the total adjustment for this year.
“In September, with the payment of the August pension, pensioners will receive an additional increase in the percentage of the second regular adjustment of pensions, which will mean that this is the final calculation for the year 2026 of the total pension increase.”
Total pension increase of 15.08 percent
Delić confirmed that the final increase will be significantly higher than the previously paid 3.5 percent.
“Today we already have a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Institute of Pension and Disability Insurance, which may have already voted for this decision at this moment. The total increase for 2026 will be 15.08 percent.”
According to him, the amendments to the law enabled an increase that is significantly higher than the previously legally allowed maximum.
“Compared to the law we had before, the increase should have been a maximum of five percent, but after the adoption of the new law for 2026, the total increase in pensions will be 15.08 percent.”
Pensioners will also be paid the difference
Delić explained why an adjustment of 3.5 percent was made in July, even though the final calculation brings a much larger increase.
“It turned out that at the time of the July reconciliation, not all the statistical data necessary for the final calculation were known, and then this accumulative 3.5 percent was done in July.”
He added that waiting for the final statistical data would mean that pensioners would have to wait months for an increase.
“We want the pensioners as soon as possible, when we have certain data on the basis of which we can pay the minimum for the guaranteed increase at that moment, that the pensioners will receive immediately, and that is why we did accumulative adjustment.”
As he said, the difference will be paid retroactively.
“When the final data is known, the final calculation is made and the differences in those two calculations are paid retroactively. This means that in this option, pensioners receive their increase a month or two earlier, and they are paid the difference retroactively, which will now also be done in September, that is, on September 4, when the increased August pensions and the difference for the July pension will be paid.”
Matching formula: 60 percent of wages and 40 percent of expenses
Delić pointed out that the final calculation is defined by the law and the formula, which, he claims, was initiated by the pensioners’ representatives.
“The final settlement was defined on the basis of a formula, and the formula was initiated by the Union of Pensioners of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Everything they asked for in their request was adopted. They asked for the formula to be as it is today.”
The formula implies a combination of average wage growth and the consumer price index.
“60 percent average salary and 40 percent consumer price growth index, or vice versa, depending on which ratio is more favorable at a given moment for pensioners. We are obliged to enforce that law.”
Almost 500 million KM was additionally allocated from the budget
Delić says that the increase in pensions required the allocation of significant additional funds from the federal budget.
“We did more than our expectations and more than our realistic, especially fiscal, possibilities, given that additional funds in the amount of almost 500 million convertible marks were allocated from the budget for the payment of this year’s pension increase.”
He added that, without changes to the law, pensions could increase by a maximum of five percent this year.
“Pensions will grow by 15.08 percent in 2026, and if we had not amended the law, they would have grown by a maximum of five percent.”
Delić: It is not true that the pensioners asked for a ratio of 70:30
Speaking about the 60:40 adjustment model, Delić rejected the claims that the pensioners originally asked for a 70:30 ratio.
“It is not true that the pensioners asked for 70:30. We have official requests. I showed them publicly several times and you can get them here and now. They asked for that ratio of 60:40 percent.”
According to him, the adoption of such a model represented a major fiscal challenge.
“Many experts who work here in the Ministry and in the Pension and Disability Insurance Institute, when they saw that proposal, what would they call me in the vernacular, they grabbed their heads because they knew that it was not easy to secure an additional 500 million convertible marks from budget funds.”
In the future, the lowest pension will depend on the length of service
One of the most important changes in the law refers to future pensioners, that is, to the method of determining the lowest pension.
“It is fair because it is not fair that the one who works for 15 years and the one who works for 40 years have the same amount of pension. This was also one of the requests from the very beginning of my mandate from all, so to speak, social partners, primarily from the Union of Pensioners of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.”
Delić believes that the new system should additionally motivate citizens to stay longer in the mandatory insurance system and pay contributions regularly.
“It is only fair that the pension-disability insurance system is a system of acquired rights, and acquired rights are the length of service and the amount of contributions paid. Based on this, people are motivated to work more, to pay higher contributions and to obtain higher pensions themselves.”
Around 6,000 future pensioners could be affected by the change
When asked how many future pensioners could receive a lower pension due to the change in Article 81 than under the previous law, Delić said that the estimates are around 6,000 people.
“What we have done in terms of analyses and estimates, that number should not be higher than the data we have now, which indicates around six thousand pensioners.”
However, he believes that it is more important to establish a principle according to which the amount of the pension depends on the length of service and contributions paid.
“Someone who has worked for 15 years cannot have the same pension as someone who has worked for 40 years, because that means that the one who has worked for 15 years takes from the one who has worked for 40 years, and in that way we put the entire system at a disadvantage.”
The burden of unpaid contributions must not fall on the workers
Delić also spoke about workers whose years of service were not recorded because their employers did not pay contributions.
“The burden on employers is such and these are their failures, and the state must find tools and ways to more severely sanction such employers who are ready to have workers who work for them and contribute to their income and earnings, but are not ready to pay them mandatory contributions for pension and disability insurance.”
He added that the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy tried to strengthen inspection supervision.
“We made an effort, at least when it comes to this ministry, to strengthen inspection supervision over such employers, to demand that the Labor Act be respected above all.”
The social minimum should be solved through social policy
Delić believes that the state should guarantee the social minimum, but not through the pension insurance system.
“The state should guarantee the social minimum for every citizen, but not through the Pension and Disability Insurance Act. We have already repeated that a hundred times. The Pension and Disability Insurance Act is a system of acquired and earned rights.”
He stressed the need for the establishment of a social map that would enable a more precise determination of the real financial situation of citizens.
“What is necessary for us, as well as at the federal level and the state for sure, is a social card to determine exactly whether someone who works illegally today earns five or ten thousand convertible marks, and does not pay contributions at all, and in this way harms himself, all future pensioners, and all current pensioners, and the state.”
The Ministry’s budget more than doubled
Delić said that the budget of the Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Policy has been significantly increased in the last few years.
“The budget of the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy from 2022, when it was 292 million, has grown to 712 million convertible marks this year, which does not include anything related to rights from the pension and disability system.”
According to him, social rights have been significantly improved, but there is still room for additional improvements.
“I believe that this is still not enough, that we still need to work on ensuring that the state guarantees a certain social minimum below which no one can live and that it guarantees the payment of social rights, but not through the Pension and Disability Insurance Act.”
Delić: If it turns out that the law is unfair, we are ready to change it
In the end, Delic said that changes to the PIO Act would be reconsidered if the analysis of its application shows negative effects.
“We absolutely consider it justified if the application of this law, not only in that part but in any other segment, turns out to be unjustified. I am personally ready to immediately change any law tomorrow, not only the Pension and Disability Insurance Act.”
He pointed out that the effects of the application of the law are continuously analyzed.
“According to the old law, pensions were supposed to grow by up to five percent this year. According to the new law, they are guaranteed to grow by 15.08 percent in 2026, and this is not the only benefit established in the new law.”
As one of the more important news, he singled out two regular adjustments of pensions per year.
“We have two regular adjustments, which people somehow ignore. In the previous law, people had to wait a year to receive a certain increase. In the new law, we have two regular adjustments, which means we have other benefits that benefited the pensioners themselves.”, Federalna writes.
