The framework for the issuance of fast track pensions and “trust pensions”, ie the basic regulations announced by the Minister of Labor, Kostis Hatzidakis, is described in an amendment of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, which was submitted yesterday, Monday, to the Parliament in the bill. Again”.
According to a statement from the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, “the proposed arrangements seek to drastically speed up the process of awarding pensions, as delays in issuing retirement decisions due to the verification of data available in the EFKA electronic system are addressed. The aim is to put an end to the hostage-taking of the insured, who are often forced to wait years to receive their pension, for which they have paid contributions, without having any other resources for their livelihood, apart from the pension advance “.
According to the announcement, the main provisions of the amendment are the following:
«1. EFKA issues a deed for the award of a main pension (or rejects the relevant application, if the conditions for its award are not met), within a period of three months. During this period, that is, the EFKA services will have to check the applicant’s insurance history and decide if he is entitled to a pension and how much.
2. After the expiration of this deadline, the pension award deeds are issued, according to the data of the insurance history recorded in the Information System ‘ATLAS’ (or other information systems available to EFKA) and the declarations and data submitted the insured together with their application for retirement, to prove that they have more insurance time than that recognized in the electronic system. The extra time can also be based on certificates from certified professionals, so there may be a combination of the insurance history found in the ‘ATLAS’ system (for the insurance time registered there) and the certified professional’s certificate for the rest of the year.
The information submitted is not verified before the issuance of the pension award, but is checked afterwards. This is the basic philosophy of the fast track process.
3. Specifically, for applications that have been submitted until March 31, 2022 and are pending until the entry into force of the provision, the pension award document is issued on the basis of the data recorded in the information systems of e-EFKA and the declarations of insured for the recognition of pension time in addition to that resulting from the aforementioned schemes. In this case, the statements are accepted without the need to provide supporting documents. That is why the process here will be even faster and will be based on the state’s trust in the insured (‘trust pensions’). Here, too, the control of the submitted data and supporting documents will be done a posteriori. In fact, in the practice of awarding a pension, it will be stated that the insured are obliged to keep physical documents that may not have been submitted to EFKA for 10 years, in order to be able to be presented during the audits.
4. A period of three months is introduced for the issuance of the supplementary pension, which begins with the issuance of the main pension, as well as a period of six months for the granting of a lump sum, starting from the date of submission of the relevant request.
5. It is clarified that these deadlines, including the three-month deadline for the issuance of the main pension, do not apply to international pensions, ie pensions issued with the assistance and participation of insurance institutions of other states.
How the audits will be carried out, after the issuance of the pensions
6. Pension deeds issued under expedited procedures shall be audited within three years of their issuance and, in any case, up to five years after their issuance. If it turns out that the insurance history taken into account for their issuance was incorrect, the transactions are reformed or revoked as appropriate. The results of the audit can not lead to charges against the pensioner that extend beyond three years.
7. If the audit shows that the insurance period taken into account for the issuance of the pension is longer than the actual time up to two years, the insured is allowed to cover the respective insurance contributions within one year, either by payment or by deduction from the paid pension, or a combination of both. The insurance contributions are covered, either at their current value, or in a way similar to that of fictitious time recognition. If this right is exercised, the act of granting a pension retains its validity and there is no case of claiming unduly paid pensions.
8. Specifically, the statements about insurance time in addition to what arises from the P.S. ‘ATLAS’ taken into account for the issuance of pension awards on applications submitted by 31 March 2022, without the submission of supporting documents, are audited within a period of five years, which may in no case exceed 10 years. In the case of ‘trust pensions’, the control is stricter and corresponds to the increased trust in the insured. In this context, if documents are requested that document the additional insurance period and they are not submitted by the insured, the payment of the pension is suspended until the audit is completed and the pension award is revoked or reformed accordingly.
9. The search for unduly paid benefits to the extent that they were paid, based on statements of the insured, for which no documentation was submitted (ie were not accompanied by supporting documents), refers to the issuance of the deed of award of a pension. That is, there is no time limit of three years that applies in cases where the declaration of the insured for additional insurance time was documented.
10. It is clarified that the restrictions on the audit, its point in time and the recovery of unduly paid amounts, do not apply in cases where the retirement decision was issued, following fraudulent conduct of the insured, ie if he submitted information knowing that it was false or untrue. Therefore, one can not abuse the trust shown to him by the state and then avoid control. It goes without saying that in these cases criminal liability is sought, if any.
11. The preparation of an annual report on the cases of rapid award of a pension is foreseen, in which the number and the result of the audits and their financial impact will be recorded.
The rest of the settings
12. It is provided that the documents documenting additional insurance time, the recognition of which is requested by the insured, do not have to be submitted in physical form to e-EFKA within 15 days from the retirement application, but can be posted electronically on the date of the application and be kept by the insured for five years, in order to be demonstrated in case of control. If they do not show up during the audit, the pension will be revoked or amended, as appropriate.
13. With regard to the data that can be used to determine the insurance period and to expedite the process of awarding pensions, it is envisaged as a general principle that any suitable data or document will be used to prove the insurable status and the insurance period of the applicant. The documents and procedures to be taken into account on a case-by-case basis are also specified.
More specifically, it is provided, inter alia, that:
– The illness booklets are used to find the insurance period in the former IKA-ETAM.
– Every public service document, in which the pensioner was employed, is taken into account, based on the provisions of the successive pension, if it results from the time of service, insurance and payment of contributions.
– The time of auxiliary insurance in the IKA-ETAM company is utilized for the establishment of insurance time with the provisions of the successive insurance, when it is granted by the Auxiliary Insurance Fund of Civil Servants.
– It is possible to use statistical methods for the processing of comparable statistical data, in order to adjust pensions, when there is a lack of available data in electronic form and the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs is authorized to regulate the relevant conditions and details.
– The way is opened for the utilization, with the aim of accelerating the award of pensions, modern computer tools and, in particular, robotic Process Automation (RPA) technology, as well as methods of automated data analysis.
14. The regulation for the process of submitting a retirement request is amended, in order to automate the existence of debts of the insured to the e-EFKA above the limit that excludes retirement and to provide a two-month deadline for repayment of debts, so that the insured has the right to retire. It is also provided that, in cases where the pension is related to the disability of the insured, the processing of the request begins, after a certificate is submitted by the competent KEPA regarding the degree of disability of the applicant.
15. There are two ways in which insured persons who are close to the threshold for establishing a pension right can recognize more insurance time:
– The first way concerns insured persons who have reached the age of 67 and need up to 150 days of insurance, in order to establish the right to full retirement, provided that they have not recognized more than five fictitious years of insurance. In this case, they recognize up to 150 days of insurance, paying the contributions corresponding to 150 days of insurance, based on the current, at the time of recognition, unskilled worker wage.
– In the second way, the right to join the optional continuation of the insurance is provided, without checking the eligibility conditions for work and for a period of up to three years, for those who want to retire and had at least 500 working days within a calendar period of five years ago from the date of submission of the pension application.
15. Finally, the provisions recognizing insurance time are supplemented, based on the principle of formal insurance, in order to explicitly provide that the correct or incorrect affiliation of the insured for a period longer than five years from the time of the audit cannot be re-examined.
Second amendment
Finally, it is noted that, with a second amendment, tabled in the bill “Jobs Again”, the following is provided:
A) The issue of the payment of the proportion of the Easter holiday allowance 2022 to the employees, whose employment contract is suspended within the period January 1-April 30, 2022, is regulated, due to the extraordinary measures taken to protect the jobs in the affected areas from the natural disasters caused by the fires of August 2021.
B) The issue of the possibility of operation of tuition centers and foreign language centers on Sundays and public holidays, for conducting competitions or examinations of students is addressed.
C) The fixed-term contracts that have been concluded pursuant to article 207 of law 4820/2021 are extended. These contracts have covered and will continue to fill the gaps created by the imposition of the special administrative measure of suspension of public sector employees who did not comply with the COVID-19 coronavirus vaccination obligation. Its aim is to maintain the proper functioning of the aforementioned public sector bodies and, in particular, of the social welfare bodies which host the predominantly vulnerable groups of the population.
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