For the changes it brings insurance billwhich was voted recently, was spoken by Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Security, Panos Tsakloglouin a program of the television station SKAI.

“With the new year, the first thing we have to do legislatively is the uniform regulations. EFKA, as a single body, must have uniform rules for all its insured and, indeed, quite a lot of progress has already been made, but there are still cases where benefits are given according to the rules of the former fund, to which each insured belonged” he noted and added:

“With the last insurance bill, we essentially consolidated the rules for providing supplementary pensions, which was causing problems for the insured, especially those of the State, because the rules were very different from those that apply in the private sector.

But cash benefits, for example the funeral allowance, are still given under the old rules.

The second major area, where progress has also been made, but the rules need to be completely unified, is in the invalidity regulation, as the rules applicable to each former insurance fund are different.

Beyond these, there are issues of an organizational nature with the passing of the bill and the relevant ministerial decisions and circulars should follow.”

Asked about the speed of awarding pensions, Mr. Tsakloglou replied:

“In no country and in no insurance system, no one can say with certainty what the period of issue will be for all pensions without exception. There are simple, but also particularly complex pension files. However, it must be emphasized that huge steps have been taken and the average time for awarding a pension today is around 60 days, which is considered a satisfactory period.

EFKA is launching a pilot program for those who are approaching the retirement limit, so that there is a preparation on their part for the supporting documents needed to establish their pension right and to grant a pension more quickly.”

Regarding the reduction of insurance contributions, the Deputy Minister of Labor recalled that, during the previous four years, insurance contributions were reduced by 4.4 percentage points and underlined that the commitment of the government program of the New Democracy is to reduce another 1 point during this period four-year (half a unit in 2025 and half a unit in 2027).

Among other things, Mr. Tsakloglou also referred to the issue of increasing pensions. As he clarified, “the law states very clearly how the annual increases in pensions are given. Their increase each year is equal to half of the previous year’s inflation and economic growth rate. What the government has committed to is that whenever fiscal results overperform, we return a portion to society as a “social dividend” and that includes pensioners. For example, recently, extraordinary support was given to low pensioners, but also to those who have a personal difference in their pension.

Regarding retirement limits, the Deputy Minister of Labor emphasized the following: “The legislation stipulates that, every three years, the change in life expectancy will be examined, because what interests us is the life expectancy of people who retire, not the expected of survival at birth. Although our insurance system is currently running significant deficits, according to available actuarial studies it is sustainable if we follow the rules we have, and one of the most important rules is this. Due to the fact that, in previous years, the positive trend of increasing life expectancy was reversed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, life expectancy, during the overall reference period, has not changed significantly. So, what we can say with certainty is that, for the next three years, that is until 2027, there will be no increase in the retirement limits.”