In this episode of the podcast “Talk to Anila Hoxha” on Top Albania Radio, the topic of discussion was “The odyssey of pensioners”.
In Albania, the number of elderly people included in the pension scheme is declared to be 705 thousand people, with a state budget that for 2024 is calculated at 183 billion ALL.
However, hundreds of citizens who have reached the retirement age, continue to go around the state agencies or face the courts to get their pension. The Supreme Judicial Council admits that 6,500 elderly people are waiting for answers in the administrative and civil courts. In addition to the loss of years of work, caused by the dissolution of state enterprises, cooperatives or the burning of archives during the 1997 riots, they must prove that they have made their contributions.
Judge Ardian Dvorani says that the institutions must bear responsibility, that the administration must not harass the elderly but inform them where the documents are. Dvorani admits that during the trials he encountered cases when elderly people have died and the cases were dismissed. He says that they are waiting for a solution after the draft law to reduce the accumulation of files has been submitted to the assembly, and suggests that one of the formulas is trial by campaigns for certain issues, such as pensions and food pensions, which should not be kept in queue.
A.Hoxha: We are with the administrative judge Mr. Ardian Dvorani to talk about pensions, lawsuits, the influx of cases, what is otherwise known as the backlog, why are there so many citizens who continue to have the issue of their pensions unresolved?
Dvorani: This is a very complex question, in response I am giving you the information that today, in the Administrative Court of Appeal there are 1496 cases for review, related to pensions. Although our court respects the order of registration of the case, when there is a request from the parties, that is from the pensioners, it tries to find the best possible space to deal with it.
Dvorani: Even if the court had a full judicial body, and some initiatives are being taken in the Parliament in this respect, we have had a backlog of cases, that is, a very large number of cases have been created, it happens that pension issues are waiting not for months but for years. So there is a very large number of issues. There are many factors, but the fact is that today we are judging cases from the years 2017-2018. We are 6-7 years late.
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