“There is no question of increasing retirement age limits. Perfect”said the Minister of Labor and Social Security, Adonis Georgiadis, from the floor of the Parliament, categorically rejecting PASOK’s accusations that the ND government has a hidden agenda to increase the retirement age limits.

It was an occasion the topical question of PASOK MP Giorgos Mulkiotsh for the issuance of Uniform Insurance and Benefits Regulations of the EFKA, which has been pending since 2016.

“There is no question of increasing the retirement limits. Perfect. There is no increase in pension limits on our agenda. What exists is a passed law from 2010, by the PASOK government, which was repeated in 2014 and 2016 and was voted for by all three parties, PASOK, ND and SYRIZA and which in PASOK you suddenly discovered as a hidden agenda of the Mitsotakis government” , Mr. Georgiadis said and added:

“How hidden can an agenda be, when the law has been passed by PASOK in 2010, by ND and PASOK in 2014 and by SYRIZA in 2016? In Parliament, that is, was the law secretly passed by three governments? Obviously, the announcement was unfortunate. It is your right to insist that PASOK of 2023 and Nikos Androulakis wants to repeal the PASOK law of Papandreou and Fofi of 2010 and 2014. However, it is our fellow citizens who judge it.”

For his part, the PASOK MP stressed the need to institute a unified insurance and retirement regulation, noting that there is an irrationality in the benefits and a great disparity between the insured and the pensioners.

Responding to Mr. Mulkiotis, Mr. Georgiadis acknowledged that in the seven years of EFKA’s operation, the injustices and inequalities that exist in terms of benefits have now been highlighted.

“We now see the injustice before our eyes. We all pay the same but we don’t get the same benefits.” admitted the Minister of Labor and added: “In the bill that comes out today or tomorrow in the consultation there are two provisions in the direction of the uniform regulation of benefits that solve two major problems legislatively.”

As he said, “the one provision for simulating the method of paying the lump sum to civil servants with the former IKA, and therefore a big difference in the way we gave the lump sum, is solved by the law that we will vote in a few days in the Parliament and the the second concerns the extension of the maternity allowance, so that the maternity allowance of the self-employed and farmers matches with the rest”.

“I mention this now, because when the single benefit regulation comes, you know, we will count and who will meet to vote for it. Because those who get the most are the few. Those who get the least of the lot are the many. So, when we talk about a single regulation of benefits, these few will lose a lot and the many will gain a little”, pointed out Mr. Georgiadis and added:

“The uniform regulation of benefits must be done both for reasons of justice and for practical reasons. Currently e-efka is in the phase of creating the integrated information system. One of the major structural problems of EFKA is that all the funds that entered had their own information systems and this delays all procedures. Now we are building the integrated information system. For practical reasons, we will necessarily go to one because it cannot be done with 88 different benefit regulations.”

“It won’t be so pleasant for some, they will cry, and rightly so, but you supporters of the Single Benefits Regulation I hope will be here to support the endeavour. Uniform regulation of benefits so that everyone goes to 1,600 euros, obviously the numbers are not working out, we don’t have the money. So, that would mean they should meet 750, 1,000 and 1,600 in an average. This is what the Commission tells us. The average, because there are many more insured persons of the IKA, several of the State and few of the TAP-OTE will be much below 1,600”, underlined the Minister of Labor.