Dimitrijeviq calls for halt to pension payments into Alta Banka accounts to protect pensioners

During a visit to Bitola this afternoon, SDSM Secretary-General Aleksandra Sasha Dimitrijeviq called on the Health and Disability Insurance Fund to stop depositing pensions into Alta Bank accounts. In a statement to the media, he linked the request to the situation at the bank and people’s inability to withdraw their money, stressing the need to protect pensioners and ensure safe access to their funds.

According to Dimitrijeviq, the Alta Banka scandal has left people uncertain about the safety of their money and savings. He singled out pensioners’ inability to access their pensions as particularly worrying, stressing that residents of Bitola face serious difficulties and concerns about their financial security.

Addressing the Health and Disability Insurance Fund, he called for pension payments into pensioners’ Alta Banka accounts to be suspended as a measure to protect them.

Dimitrijeviq blamed the government’s irresponsibility for the inability of pensioners with accounts at the bank to withdraw the income they rely on for basic living expenses. He also accused Mickoski of protecting criminals’ capital.

Describing the situation, he said pensioners had been left without access to their pensions for a second time: branches were closed, ATMs had no cash and bank cards were unavailable. He said they could not withdraw even 10,000 denars. Those without cards, he said, could not access their money because branches were not operating, while many ATMs were empty and others had to wait for hours.

He pointed out that pensioners need to pay their bills and cover the costs of electricity, heating, food and medicine. According to Dimitrijeviq, protecting savers means allowing them to withdraw their savings in full. He described the government as criminal and accused it of seeking to preserve criminals’ capital at the expense of victims whose deposits had been seized.