The Croatian Pension System: Origins, Evolution and Perspectives

U prvom dijelu rada autor se bavi počecima hrvatskog mirovinskog sustava koje nalazi u mirovinama vojnika i državnih službenika, bratinskim blagajnama nastalim u 19. stoljeću te u mirovinskom osiguranju zaposlenika u prvim hrvatskim bankama početkom 20. stoljeća. Nakon Prvog svjetskog rata, 1922. godine u monarhističkoj Jugoslaviji usvojen je Zakon o socijalnom osiguranju radnika kojim se regulira mirovinsko osiguranje radnika. Međutim, taj zakon nije primijenjen sve do 1937. godine. Mirovinsko i drugi oblici socijalnog osiguranja sustavno se uvode nakon Drugog svjetskog rata. U institucionalnom i financijskom pogledu mirovinsko se osiguranje postupno decentralizira i prenosi u nadležnost tadašnjih republika. Kriza mirovinskog sustava, koja je bila prisutna na kraju razdoblja socijalizma, produbljena je tijekom Domovinskog rata i postsocijalističke tranzicije. Ona se prvenstveno ogledala u problemima financiranja mirovinskih fondova i pada razine mirovina. Pred kraj devedesetih izvršena je tzv. mala, parametarska mirovinska reforma, kojom je racionaliziran postojeći mirovinski sustav. Godine 2002. počela je djelomična kapitalizacija mirovina, dakle, radikalna promjena mirovinskog sustava. Mirovinska je reforma, povezana s promjenama u društvu, uzrokovala nove probleme u prvom stupu međugeneracijske solidarnosti. Nakon »mirovinskog duga« nastalog u prvoj polovini devedesetih, a koji se postupno vraća, danas je aktualan problem tzv. »novih mirovina«, ostvarenih nakon 1999. godine, koje osjetno zaostaju za starim mirovinama. Autor ističe da će budući razvoj mirovinskog sustava biti determiniran gospodarskim razvojem, a posebno zapošljavanjem. Također predviđa da će Hrvatska korigirati postojeći mirovinski sustav, mijenjati neke njegove parametre (npr. dob odlaska u mirovinu), a isto tako rekonstruirati njegovu institucionalnu strukturu, prije svega uvođenjem temeljnih mirovina.In the first part of the paper, the author deals with the beginnings of the Croatian pension system, tracing it to the pensions of soldiers and civil servants, guild coffers that emerged in the 19th century, and the pension insurance of the employees of the first Croatian banks in the beginning of the 20th century. Following World War I, the Act on Social Insurance of Workers was adopted in the Yugoslav Monarchy in 1922, regulating pension insurance of workers. However, this law was not applied until 1937. Pension insurance and other forms of social insurance have been systematically introduced after World War II. From the institutional and financial standpoint, pension insurance was gradually decentralised and transferred to the competence of Republics of that period. The crisis of the pension system, already present in the end of the socialist period, was further deepened during the Homeland War and post-socialist transition. It was primarily reflected in the problems related to financing pension systems and the drop of the pension levels. Towards the end of the 1990s, a so-called small, parametric reform was conducted, rationalising the existing pension system. In 2002, a partial capitalization of reforms was initiated, which meant the radical change of the pension system. Pension reform, connected with the changes in society, caused new problems in the first pillar of intergenerational solidarity. After the “debt to pensioners” that was made in the first half of the 1990s, and which is gradually being paid back, the current problem are so-called “new pensioners”, who have entered retirement after 1999, and whose pension income is increasingly lagging behind income of those who have entered retirement beforehand. The author points out that the future development of the pension system will be largely determined by the economic development, particularly by growth of employment. He also predicts that Croatia will correct the existing pension system through the change of some of its parameters, (such as the retirement age), while also reconstructing its institutional structure, primarily through the introduction of basic pensions