Debts to EFKA that have not been certified by the insurance company within 10 years will be barred, according to legislation to be submitted to Parliament.
At 10 years the limit is set after which it will the claims of EFKA are barred to companies, self-employed and self-employed, with insurance debts, according to an order of the Ministry of Labor that is expected to be submitted to Parliament in the near future.
The provision follows a decision (no. 1833/2021) of the Plenary Session of the Council of State (CoC) which ruled that the rule of 20-year limitation period of claims of e-EFKA against insured and employers for non-payment of insurance contributions, which set Katruggalo law is unconstitutional, contrary to the principle of legal certainty and the principle of proportionality. It should be noted that before this law, there were funds to which the 20-year limitation period was valid or applied (eg OAEE, OGA) and to others such as IKA, which provided for the 10-year limitation period. As the Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Security Panos Tsakloglou states in “K”, a further further reduction of the limitation period is not ruled out, even in 5 years, as it applies to the debts to the tax office.
The Ministry of Labor, and specifically the General Secretariat of Social Insurance, is in the final stage of drafting a provision of law, which on the one hand will comply with the decision of the CoF, on the other hand will cover the issue uniformly for all debts and funds included in EFKA .
Speaking to “Kathimerini”, Mr. Tsakloglou points out that the State must comply with the decision of the CoE and it will do so immediately. “But beyond this obligation, we proceed to a holistic approach to the issue and regulate the period of limitation in all its stages, and in the first when the debt is in e-EFKA and in the next when it is confirmed in KEAO”, he notes. To add that “the measure in the long run will lead to greater legal certainty for citizens, faster procedures for administration and better securing the collection of contributions.” According to the Deputy Minister of Social Security, the Ministry of Labor “is investigating a further further reduction of the limitation period in order to be in line with what the tax administration applies”.
Analytically and according to secure information of “K”, the provision will define 10 years as a limitation period of the requirements of EFKA, both “in a broad” and “in a narrow” sense. This in practice means that if from the moment a debt is generated and until EFKA issues a deed of certification of this debt, a period of more than 10 years has elapsed, the additional time of 10 years is statute-barred. Of course, since the Katruggalo law also provides for a debt settlement procedure by the Insurance Debt Collection Center (KEAO), the new provision also sets 10 years as the starting period for the limitation period, from the time a debt reaches the Center until it is notified to the debtor and initiate recovery procedures.
The Ministry of Labor estimates that the whole process concerns debts of about 250 million euros, a significant part of which will be statute-barred. They point out that these are not debts that were created recently, as the imputation of the debts to most of the former funds that joined the EFKA is done within a few months from their creation and in no case exceeds 10 years. And they make it clear that even for the self-employed, no insurance time will be lost if the debts are paid.
It should be noted that for the self-employed and the self-employed, the time for which debts have not been paid is not counted in the years of insurance, in order for someone to meet the required conditions and receive a pension. According to the information of “K”, in the provision under formation will be explicitly defined that the statute of limitations does not mean deletion of the claim, and therefore does not lead to deletion of the insurance time. In practice, at any time, even during the process of submitting the retirement application, the insured will be able to pay the contributions owed for this period – even if on the basis of 10 years is statute-barred – and the specific time to be counted for receiving of his pension.
It should be noted here that the provision does not in any way affect the insurance time of employees, whose employers have not paid the insurance contributions, provided that the insurance time has been recorded through the Detailed Periodic Declarations (DPA). That is, it has been declared, but it has not been paid.
Of course, there are also cases of insured employees, who file a complaint claiming insurance time from employers, but the latter have not submitted an APD (uninsured work). In this case, as the right has not been registered, if there is an limitation period, there is a risk of loss. According to information, in the promoted intervention of the Ministry of Labor there will be a transitional provision, so that rights are not lost, and the provision does not deviate from the spirit of the decision of the CoE.
Finally, there will be a provision for the insured with active debt settlement for which they pay installments, so that the amount that will be statute-barred will be deducted from the regulation.
Surplus of 503 million in the first quarter
EFKA entered a surplus trajectory in the first quarter of 2022, as after a long period of stagnation – mainly due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the economy – in previous years, the Agency shows a surplus of 503 million euros. In fact, it is significantly increased, by 412 million euros compared to the corresponding period last year, when the surplus was only 91 million euros, with revenues increased by 888 million euros. The regulation of the 72 installments, but mainly the fact that in the first quarter of the year self-employed and farmers entered into a regularity of payments to EFKA, before of course they were “hit” by the dramatic increase in prices of raw materials and energy, explains the surplus, although the expenses are increased by 476 million euros, mainly due to the payment of the outstanding but also increased expenses for the payment of the current pensions.
According to the data of EFKA published in the report of the Budget Office of the Parliament, in the quarter January – March 2022 the revenues from contributions and debt settlements are increased by 566 million euros, the transfers from the state budget are increased by 69 million euros and third-party receipts increased by EUR 267 million. Other revenues are reduced by 13 million euros. Expenditure on pensions (principal and auxiliary) increased by EUR 173 million, other benefits and lump sums increased by EUR 63 million, returns to third parties increased by EUR 301 million and other expenditure decreased by EUR 61 million. euro.
Of course, at the same time, the debts of the insured and companies to EFKA and KEAO increased by 5.1 billion euros in one year, and thus amounted to 42.8 billion euros at the end of the first quarter of 2022.
According to the report, the ever-increasing trend of the Social Security debt is due to the doubling of the main debts (3.4 billion euros) compared to the burden of additional fees (1.7 billion euros). The report shows an increase in all sub-categories of debt range, with the largest, by 1.6 billion euros, being identified for debt from 10,000 to 100,000 euros. In this category were registered in the first quarter of the current year 625,026 debtors (natural and legal persons), more by 151,332 compared to the 473,694 that had arisen in the fourth quarter of 2021.
At the end of March 2022 e-EFKA paid 2,711,374 pensions (corresponding to 2,417,306 retirees), a number reduced compared to December 2021 paid 2,716,487 pensions (to 2,427,397 retirees), but increased compared to in the first quarter of 2021 (2,703,848 pensions to 2,433,926 retirees).
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