Serbia Pension Falls to 46% of Wage, Checks Sept 2

Serbia’s average pension amounts to 46 percent of the average wage, according to a comparison of the two latest official figures. The Republic Fund for Pension and Disability Insurance (RFPIO) announced on August 25 that the average pension for July was 56,822 dinars, while the average net wage in June, per the Republic Statistical Office, was 120,401 dinars.

The World Bank recommends that this ratio, known as the replacement rate, sit at no less than 60 percent. Milos Grabundzija, president of the Pensioners’ Union of Serbia Nezavisnost, points to the gap:

“Under World Bank standards that ratio should be 60 percent, and even though our legislation sets no minimum threshold for it, we believe average pensions should account for that share of the average wage,” Grabundzija told Biznis.rs.

He said Serbia has 1,650,000 pension recipients, and more than a million of them, nearly two-thirds of the total, receive a pension below the average. About 450,000 pensioners receive an amount below the lowest pension, which since December 2025 has stood at 31,092 dinars for those with an employment or self-employment history and 24,443 dinars for farmers. The union is asking that the Law on Pension and Disability Insurance be amended so no new pension can fall below that minimum.

When August pensions arrive

RFPIO has published the payment calendar for August pensions by recipient category. First in line are pensioners from self-employment backgrounds, who receive their money on September 2, when payments begin. Farmers and military pensioners are paid on September 5 via current accounts, or September 7 at home addresses and post office counters. The largest group, pensioners from employment, receives its money on September 9 via current accounts. Last are recipients of pensions from the former Yugoslav republics, whose payments arrive on September 10.

Who gets the one-time aid, and how much

Alongside the regular August pension, the state is also paying out one-time financial aid starting September 14, split into three brackets by pension amount. Recipients with pensions up to 31,092.11 dinars get 35,000 dinars, those with pensions between 31,092.12 and 56,822 dinars get 27,500 dinars, and recipients with pensions above 56,822 dinars get 20,000 dinars. The same date, September 14, applies to recipients of child allowance, social assistance and veterans’ allowance, who receive 25,000 dinars each, and to veterans without the veterans’ allowance, who are entitled to 10,000 dinars. Pensioners do not need to apply for anything: the money arrives automatically through RFPIO, the same way their pension is paid.

Grabundzija told Biznis.rs that the union welcomes any assistance, but that it does not solve the underlying problem: “We support any favorable measure for pensioners, but we’re pushing for the one-time increases to be folded into the average pension.” According to him, that would mean recipients with incomes below the average and below the lowest pension gain a permanently higher status, since, as he put it, nobody lives off a one-time payment once a year or once every two years.

As adult citizens, pensioners are also getting an additional 6,000 dinars, which the state is paying out to all adult citizens between September 22 and 25.

RFPIO director Relja Ognjenovic said on August 22, at a town hall with pensioners in Altina, in Belgrade’s Zemun municipality, that 377.2 million euros has been secured for measures aimed at pensioners and that the money will be paid out without any borrowing:

“It’s important for you to know that we haven’t borrowed a single dinar and that we haven’t taken on any debt.”

Pension increase expected by year’s end

Besides the one-time payments, the authorities are also announcing the regular annual pension adjustment, which could take effect before the end of 2026 rather than from January 2027 as originally planned. Based on announcements so far, the increase should amount to 9.2 percent. We previously wrote about the announced pension increase and the funding set aside for it in the article “Vucic: pensions to rise like wages, 100 billion set aside.”

Grabundzija stresses that this is not an extraordinary increase but the regular annual adjustment, and that an extraordinary increase, had there been one, would have had to arrive back in May or June, matching the twice-yearly adjustment schedule of April 1 and October 1 that used to be standard. In his assessment, even the announced 9.2 percent is not a large increase once inflation and rising prices for utilities and basic groceries are factored in, since, as he put it, that growth has “already eaten up” the announced increase.