By Chrysostomos Tsoufis

Damn freedom for the insured with debts to EFKA that exceed €30,000 who will be able to submit a pension application without obstacles from mid-June based on the design. The relevant ministerial decision that opens the way for the applications was also signed by the Deputy Minister of Finance Thanos Petralias and now only the completion of the EFKA and banks communication channel is required for the deposit control process and how exactly it will be functionally done.

As we were the first to write here at skai.gr, a special platform was not created, but an independent electronic service was selected which will be included in the pension application process for the self-employed. In other words, the interested party, together with the retirement application, will also submit an application for inclusion in the regulation. This service will only concern freelancers with debts from €20,000 to €30,000 and farmers with debts from €6,000 to €10,000.

By submitting the retirement application, in specially designed fields, they will consent to the lifting of their bank secrecy and thus to the approval for the banks to provide the EFKA with the required documents concerning the bank accounts, their type and in which banks they are kept.

Within 10 days, the EFKA services will be able to ascertain if and how many deposits there are and to understand whether it is a strategic defaulter or an insured person who at some point suffered from some misfortune resulting in the swelling of his debts. According to the law, deposits must not exceed €12,000 (€6,000 for farmers).

It will also be checked if the insured has reached the age of 67 or 62 with 40 years of insurance. In both cases, it is also checked if he has paid contributions for at least 20 years.

Based on the legislative framework, if the debtor’s application is approved, he will initially receive 40% of his pension.

The remaining 60% will be withheld for the repayment of the part of the debts that exceed €20,000 for freelancers and €6,000 for farmers. The monthly withholding amount cannot be less than €333 for freelancers and self-employed and from €100 for farmers.

Once the debts fall below these 2 limits, then the remaining debt is settled in 60 monthly installments and the amount to service the settlement is withheld from the pension.

In cases where the debt exceeds €30,000 (or €10,000 for farmers) then a debt document is notified to the insured to pay within two months of the notification, the excess amount so that it will then be subject to the provisions of the regulation. If the two months pass without payment of the excess amount, then the application – even though it meets the other conditions – is rejected.

According to the EFKA database, it is estimated that approximately 110,000 legal and natural persons, self-employed and self-employed, have debts between €20,000 and €30,000 and a total debt of €2.6 billion

There are approximately 27,000 farmers with debts between €6,000 and €10,000 and total debts of €175 million.

It is estimated that 10-15% (13,700 – 20,550) meet the conditions of retirement.

The establishment of the service for debtors is expected to unblock a significant number of pending pension cases which are currently estimated at just over 20,000.