Serbia Pension Hike: Lowest Incomes Set to Gain Most
PIO Fund director Relja Ognjenovic signals a model fairer to the lowest incomes, with more than 700,000 pensioners in focus. The exact percentage lands in July.
- PIO Fund director Relja Ognjenovic has signalled a pension increase fairer to the lowest incomes.
- The focus is on more than 700,000 pensioners earning up to 45,000 dinars, or below the average.
- The exact percentage and model will be known in July 2026, after final calculations.
- A measures package, including higher pensions and cheaper medicines, is due at a gathering on June 27.
More than 700,000 pensioners in Serbia receive up to 45,000 dinars a month, and it is precisely that group, a sizeable share of roughly 1.6 million PIO Fund recipients, that should benefit most from the announced increase. Relja Ognjenovic, director of the Pension and Disability Insurance Fund, has signalled a model fairer to pensioners with the lowest incomes, rather than handing everyone the same percentage regardless of cheque size.
The logic is simple, and Ognjenovic put it plainly: an increase is not the same for someone receiving 100,000 dinars and someone on 30,000 or 40,000. The same percentage applied to a smaller pension yields fewer dinars, so a flat increase preserves, and sometimes widens, the gap between the highest and lowest incomes. The announced approach aims to narrow that gap.
What does the average pensioner actually gain?
Two approaches are on the table for now. The first is a classic flat increase, the same percentage for all recipients, the model that has been standard until now. The second is targeted financial support aimed at the most vulnerable groups, under which pensioners with the lowest incomes would gain proportionally more. The exact percentage and final model will be known in July, after final calculations and legal solutions, Ognjenovic says.
For a pensioner earning up to 45,000 dinars, that is a difference felt in the household budget. Under a targeted model, someone now receiving 40,000 dinars could proportionally gain more than a recipient on a 100,000-dinar pension, filling the gap a flat increase leaves untouched. The average pension in Serbia in spring 2026 stood at around 56,000 dinars, meaning more than half of pensioners sit below that level.
A note of precision: until the calculations are done, we are talking about a model, not a figure. No percentage has been published yet, and how many dinars land on each cheque depends on the choice between the flat and the targeted approach. That is the key distinction pensioners should watch when the package is presented.
When do the concrete numbers arrive?
The measures package, which alongside higher pensions also covers cheaper medicines, is due at a gathering scheduled for June 27. The policy outline toward pensioners should be presented then, while the definitive percentage and method of calculation arrive only in July, after final calculations by the PIO Fund and the accompanying legal solutions.
For pensioners that means two dates worth remembering: late June, when the package is expected to be presented, and July, when the numbers stop being an announcement and become an amount on the account. Until then, the open question is which model will prevail, because that determines whether the lowest pensions truly gain proportionally more or whether the increase stays evenly spread.
Would you rather see a flat increase for everyone, or targeted support aimed at the lowest pensions?
