“There is no discussion about it raising retirement age limits currently. None”, assured the Minister of Labor and Social Security, Domna Michailidouin her televised interview with OPEN.

“We have the highest average age in the European Union and, despite the demographic crisis, several steps have been taken so that our insurance system is sustainable”

Asked about the regulation for those who are about to retire and have debts to EFKA, the minister replied:

“People have worked for their pension and we want them to receive it. That’s why we’ve increased the debt limit by 50% so that pensioners with debt can receive their pension with a small deduction. This is foreseen by a Joint Ministerial Decision, with which we increased the debt limit from 20,000 euros to 30,000 euros”.

Regarding working pensioners, Mrs. Michaelidou said that until the end of February it was known that there were less than 30,000 working pensioners.

“In the first month of the platform’s operation, their number doubled and has now tripled to over 84,000. We believe that by the summer we will have broken the limit of 180,000 working pensioners”.

In retrospect, Mrs. Michailidou underlined the following:

“Retrospectives are a dynamic situation and this, because recalculations are constantly made. Every two months we have retroactive payments. It is a priority for EFKA together with the acceleration of the issuance of pensions. DEKO were paid, Olympic pensioners were paid and, in a short time, the private employees will follow. In May, we also have other retrospectives.”

Regarding the maternity allowance, the Minister of Labor emphasized:

“The maternity allowance, given by the Public Employment Service (DYPA), is remunerative for women who work and need to have a replacement of their income. Now, what we are looking at is to see what we can do for the female sailors who were not covered by the maternity allowance. We are looking at what arrangements we can put in place so that we can fairly also cover women who are at sea.”

Finally, regarding the camp programs of EFKA and DYPA, he pointed out:

“We help the family and we do this in practice. Today, the EFKA platform opens for 36,000 children, without income criteria, so that they can go to the camp. Through DYPA, 70,000 children will have a free vacation for up to one month. In fact, a higher score is provided for children from single-parent and multi-child families, as well as for children with disabilities.”