By Chrysostomos Tsoufis

Can the law on the awarding of pensions to insured persons with debts to EFKA to have been voted since last December, but this does not mean that pensions were given throughout this period of 10 months. Initially, it took 5 months to sign the necessary ministerial decision clarifying the details of the regulation and since then EFKA has been trying to solve the interoperability problem with the banks. Something that happened a few days ago, when the way is now opened for the awarding of such pensions to the approximately 20,000 freelancers and farmers with debts of €20,000-€30,000 and €6,000 to €10,000 respectively.

According to information from skai.gr, about 3,500 applications have been submitted so far, and of these, approximately 350 pensions have been awarded, the payment of which will be made in November. This rate of only 10% success of applications has to do with the 2 main safeguards provided by the law:

– The prospective pensioner must have completed at least 20 years of insurance
-To not have deposits that exceed €12,000 (€6,000 for farmers)

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, along with the retirement application, the interested party will also submit an application for inclusion in the regulation.

The submission of the pension application in the context of this regulation automatically means consent to lifting bank secrecy and therefore to the approval for the banks to provide 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.
It will also be checked if the insured has reached the age of 67 or 62 with 40 years of insurance.

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.

As soon as 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 retained by 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.