the Opinion regarding the exercise of the right from pension and disability insurance of persons who had their partial or full years of service accomplished in Kosovo and Metohija and which, due to generally known circumstances were not recorded in the relevant record of the PDI Fund and were not recognized in the years of service of insurance, it cannot be concluded that in specific cases any additional measures were taken towards obtaining of the missing data. Apart from that, in situations when citizens received from Temporary Institutions in Kosovo and Metohija financial compensation in the amount lower than the amount which they were entitled to in the same period on the basis of later passed decision on the pension, the PDI fund has not paid for the difference in financial funds even though the complainant did not timely exercise the right to pension due to the omission in the operation of the PDI fund. Regarding this legal issue, the Protector of Citizens issued to the Fund the recommendation.213 The deadline for the submission of the statement on acting upon the recommendations still has not expired. During this reporting period, too, the Protector of Citizens received certain number of citizens’ complaints which indicated that, a certain number of persons, only on the basis of the fact that they were members of the household of the person who owns the agricultural farm, for many years, without any grounds, were in debt for contributions for pension and disability insurance without being informed about that. Namely, it is the consequence of the fact that the existing Law on Pension and Disability Insurance did not adequately define the notion of agricultural beneficiary of insurance, criteria for the acquisition and termination of the agricultural beneficiary of insurance property were not prescribed, the procedure of application for insurance is not clearly organized, as well of the signing off the insurance and confirmation of the termination of insurance beneficiary property and the dormant period of the insurance beneficiary property and many other issues of importance for the exercise of rights of agricultural producers to pension and disability insurance. In order to overcome efficiently the consequences emerged due to poor and complete legal solutions in the manner to achieve the desired purpose by introducing of this category of insurance beneficiaries into the system of pension and disability insurance, which is the provision of their social security as the elderly, the Protector of Citizens issued to the Ministry of Labor, Employment, Veteran and Social Affairs the opinion that it is in the interest of citizens that the Ministry, within the shortest deadline, prepares amendments to the Law on Pension and Disability Insurance, in which, on the basis of actual parameters the notion of agriculture beneficiary of insurance would be defined as well as the notion of the member of family household, conditions under which members of a family household are ensured on the basis of agriculture, the process of acquisition, confirmation and termination of the insurance agricultural beneficiary property would be organized and other relevant matters related to the position of the stated category of insurance beneficiaries in the manner which reduces the room for free interpretation and discretional decisions of the competent fund.214 With the aim of the improvement of the operation of the PDI Fund, primarily the exercise of rights of citizens, who, not by their own fault, lost contributions for pension and disability insurance and years of service for the stated period, the Protector of Citizens on 4th December, 2018 issued recommendations for the removal of identified omissions. Namely, as confirmed by the Protector of Citizens, during deciding on the pension of complainants, the PDI Fund did not recognized years of service of insurance beneficiaries which was accomplished by them on the basis of the performance of independent and agricultural business, for which they Recommendation available at: https://www.ombudsman.rs/index.php/2012-02-07-14-03-33/6482-r-public-if-nd-pi-d-p-sh-u-z-n-pr-pis-n-r-v-z-d-n-sh-nj-dlu-gr-d-ni-n-bi-rp-li-sh-n-p-sl-dic-zb-g-n-bl-g-vr-n-g-dluciv-nj. 214 Opinion available at: https://ombudsman.rs/index.php/2011-12-11-11-34-45/6249-ishlj-nj-z-sh-i-ni-gr-d-ngucn-s-i-pr-v-zil-z-nj-pr-bl-sigur-ni-p-lj-privr-dni-i-risni-p-nzi-p-sn-vu-p-lj-privr-dn-g-sigur-nj. 213 - 106 -

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