A 10-year statute of limitations on debts to the EFKA and extension of the right to 5 years of combat duty to all uniformed personnel are included in the “package” of the new regulations
Mini insurance was presented to the cabinet and then in an interview with him Ministry of Labour.
Some of the most important regulations of the bill for the rationalization of the insurance system concern the reduction of the statute of limitations for unconfirmed debts to the EFKA to 10 years (from 20), the doubling of the installments for permanent settlement of insurance debts to 24 installments (from 12), the abolition of the special contribution of 1% of the insured of the Public Employees Welfare Fund (TPDY) and the extension of the “combat five years” to all uniformed personnel.
The Essentials of the bill were analyzed today in a press conference by the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, Kostis Hatzidakis, the Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, Panos Tsakloglou and the General Secretary of Social Insurance, Pavlina Karasiotou.
The Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, Kostis Hatzidakis, during his presentation he noted that “this bill is the fourth legislative intervention made by this government. We started with law 4672, which corrected – based on the pre-election commitments of New Democracy – injustices of the so-called “Katrougalos law”. We then moved on to the arrangements for TEKA and supplementary pensions, introducing the capitalization system for supplementary youth pensions. The third regulation was the bill for the modernization of the EFKA and we are now moving forward with the bill that we present to you today with regulations, for the rationalization of the insurance system.”
“We have focused”, said Mr. Hatzidakis, “on some injustices that existed until today in our insurance system and for this reason we are adopting corresponding regulations, which concern hundreds of thousands of insured persons». During today’s presentation, reference was made to the 8 basic regulations of the bill, while there are also additional technical regulations that will be made known when the bill is in consultation.
“I want to dwell on two provisions from my side. The provision on the statutes of limitations for EFKA claims and the provision in relation to installments”, the Minister pointed out and added:
“Regarding statute of limitations we do the obvious. In other words, we comply with a decision of the Council of State and go to the ten-year statute of limitations for all, regardless of the former funds. In other words, we are going to a regime that applied to the former IKA at least before the “Katrougalou law”. Attention: this arrangement only covers those who do not have confirmed debts to EFKA. In other words, it covers those who, in practice, EFKA had not notified in one way or another. It does not concern all those who owe EFKA, because otherwise everyone’s debts would be time-barred after a decade and, of course, a problem would be created in the insurance system. Stability problem. And correspondingly there would be a moral hazard, i.e. no one would pay, he would wait for the decade to complete and then he would face his debts to EFKA in this way, but EFKA and the country’s insurance system would have special problems . I am clarifying this so that there is no misunderstanding. We do not appear here today as “political Santa Clauses” handing out money, we come to confront injustices for the benefit of the insured but also for the benefit of common sense and the law.”
“The second regulation,” said Mr. Hatzidakis, “refers to harmonization of the installments of the insured persons in the EFKA with the corresponding regulations that exist in the Tax Office, the AADE. And for this reason we go from 12 doses, where this is foreseen, to 24. Another common sense arrangement because the Tax Office and EFKA both belong to the Greek Republic. We are not different states to have different regulations,” he concluded.
For his part, the Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, Panos Tsakloglou, who together with the General Secretary of Social Insurance, Paulina Karasiotou, was responsible for preparing the bill, noted: “The effort to modernize the social security system continues with a new legislative initiative, which seeks the regulation of individual social security issues with the aim of rationalization, compliance with recent decisions of the Council of State and the uniform treatment of similar cases that strengthen legal certainty and citizens’ confidence in the social security system.
The main directions of the proposed legislative arrangements included in the bill under discussion focus on four main axes: the unification of insurance rules and the restoration of inequalities, the promotion of protective provisions for vulnerable groups of insured persons and the harmonization of tax and social security administration rules.
The final form of the bill it will soon be available for consultation before being tabled in Parliament. The government’s constant pursuit is, on the one hand, to ensure the sustainability of our insurance system and, on the other hand, to upgrade the quality of social security services in a way that meets the demands of citizens and the times”.
The General Secretary of Social Insurance, Paulina Karasiotou, said: “The bill presented today to the Council of Ministers is the product of systematic processing by officials of the Ministry of Labour. The main axes on which it was built are the rationalization, unification and harmonization of rules, with the public interest in mind as well as the support of the insured. Many of the provisions presented today, first of all, I would say, the ten-year statute of limitations, are expected to have significant effects on the market in the long run. For this reason we have been particularly careful in the way of structuring the relevant provisions in the most complete way possible. With the posting of the bill for public consultation in the next period, we will have the opportunity to evaluate the constructive comments and proposals of the insured, but also of the interested entities. Our effort to improve our insurance system and serve the citizens continues unabated.
The most important provisions of the bill
1. The time available to the e-EFKA in order to confirm and collect claims from unpaid insurance contributions is reduced to 10 years (from 20 today). If the claim of EFKA is not confirmed within this period, the debts are time-barred. This regulation achieves compliance with the decision of the Council of State which ruled that the 20-year statute of limitations for EFKA claims (“Katrougalos law”) was too long and set 10 years as a reasonable statute of limitations. It is noted that from January 1, 2027, the statute of limitations for unconfirmed debts to EFKA becomes five years, with the harmonization of the statute of limitations for insurance debts with what applies to tax debts.
2. The monthly installments of regulated insurance debts are increased from 12 to 24, with a minimum monthly amount of 50 euros. The application for regulation is made electronically at the KEAO. With the proposed provision, the installments for permanent settlement of debts to EFKA and the Tax Office are equalized and debtors of overdue insurance debts are facilitated in complying with the settlement.
3. The special contribution of 1% of the insured of the former Welfare Fund of Public Employees (TPDY), which was established to support the sustainability of the Fund in question, is abolished. The TSMY is now sustainable and there is no reason to continue the special levy which ceases to be withheld from civil servants, for whom the detention was not remunerative.
4. The right of “combat five years” is extended to all enlisted men, i.e. the recognition of up to five additional years of insurance, by paying the corresponding contributions. Now those in uniform who were exempted (e.g. certain categories of firemen, porters, policemen and airmen) from the relevant regulation now acquire this right, regardless of service unit, whether they are old or new insured (before or after 2011) and regardless of the employment relationship with which they serve (permanent and non-permanent).
5. The conditional criminal prosecution of the debtors of settled insurance debts ceases for as long as the settlement is served. In this way, repeated confirmation of compliance with the regulation in court is avoided. It is a regulation that respects the dignity of citizens and at the same time achieves the relief of the tables and the corresponding burden of the courts.
6. A ceiling is established on provocatively high supplementary pensions, equal to 6/20 of the main pension ceiling (€1,382.40/month). In particular, based on the 2015-2016 legislation, the supplementary pensions are calculated, in part, based on the contributions paid during the period 2002-2014. But in some cases these contributions also included social resources, resulting in theoretically very high supplementary pensions (even 15,000 euros per month or even more). The ceiling limits the maximum amount of supplementary pensions to that which corresponds to the legal expectations created by the insured at the time they paid the contributions, which also incorporated social resources. The imposition of a cap (applied to main pensions, but not to supplementary pensions) on these provocatively high supplementary pensions becomes imperative to redress the balance between old and new insured. At the same time, the sense of justice among all pensioners is satisfied in relation to the legitimate amount of supplementary pensions and what actually are contributions.
7. The process of unifying the rules for disability pensions begins. Specifically, there is a reduction in the disability rate (from 67% to 50%) for certain groups of insured persons, as a condition for receiving disability benefits, in order to harmonize with what applies to the insured persons of the other former Funds. The new regulation primarily covers the “old insured” (before 1993), especially of the former OAEE, OGA, NAT. Also, a uniform date for the payment of disability pension is established, from the first day of submission of the disability pension application.
It is noted that the overall framework for the protection of persons with disabilities is under review, with the aim of correcting distortions, simplifying and codifying the legislation and redressing injustices resulting from the differentiation of the rules of the former Funds that joined the EFKA. For this matter, a Working Group has been set up with the participation of the National Confederation of Persons with Disabilities (ESAMEA).
8. Finally, taking into account that OPECA, in the context of audits, identified – belatedly – many cases of citizens who received benefits – mainly disabled, usually through Municipalities – without being entitled to them, in the vast majority of them in good faith and stopped their payment, retroactively looking for them unnecessarily amounts paid, the protection of particularly vulnerable groups is strengthened by stopping the search for outstanding debts from the amounts received in good faith. For the rest of the cases of unduly paid benefits, favorable measures are adopted, with a distinction between negligence and fraud, such as the three-year statute of limitations for debts, the possibility of paying them in installments or offsets with future payments, as well as not seeking very low debts (under 50 euros) . This takes into account the state’s delay in checks and respects the good faith of the disabled for benefits.
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