The most vulnerable category in Bosnia and Herzegovina is still pensioners.
Especially those who receive minimum or average pensions. Although they have been increasing since 2019, the daily price increases have led to the fact that the standard of living has never been more difficult and that, as they say, they must be masters of survival in order to last a month, BHRT writes.
Retirement afternoon. Topics – politics, health, but also how to survive on retirement.
Esma Mukanović says that, like other pensioners, she is forced to shop cautiously, at promotions and to flip over each brand twice.
“I have to carefully calculate what we will buy to eat, we need to pay the utilities, because otherwise they would immediately turn off everything. And food? Preferably. There is nothing else,” said Esma Mukanović, a pensioner from Bihać.
Instead of spending their retirement days in peace, a part of them goes to the Soup Kitchen or the Goodwill Restaurant for their meals. They do not get good will from the authorities.
In the Federation, the average pension increased by 42.61 percent from the end of 2019 until today, slightly more in the RS.
In the last three years, the prices of sugar, potatoes, oil, apples, bread, milk have increased the most… And there is almost no product that has decreased in price during that period.
“In this period, there were five extraordinary and five regular adjustments, a total of 10. The sum of percentage increases in pensions in this four-year period amounted to 44.81 percent,” said Tihomir Joksimović, Head of the Cabinet of Directors of the PIO RS Fund.
With frequent price increases – it is far from enough to live on, pensioners say.
“The lowest January pension is 565 BAM. Those who have worked for 40 years will have 664 BAM. If you compare that with the consumer basket, it is 21 percent. So, we need five pensions to satisfy the consumer basket. How do they live? From actions and reductions and from store to store,” says Huso Halilović, president of the Union of Associations of Pensioners of Tuzla Canton.
“I’m just fighting not to fall into the situation where I have to come to someone’s door and say – I can’t do it anymore,” says Ramo Ogrešević, a pensioner from Bihać.
The January pensions on their accounts will bring only a few tens of marks more.
The moves made by the authorities are, they say, imperceptible compared to the moves of those who raise prices.
They usually find a break from the dreary everyday life on the benches. This is the life of a huge number of retirees.
Some say – they are also forced to do additional jobs in order to survive, although they should actually be enjoying the fruits of many years of work, “Avaz” reports.
