“In 2024, the pilot program for the unemployment benefit will begin. It will last 1-1.5 years, the benefits of the program will be evaluated and then we will go to universal implementation”, the Minister of Labor and Social Security said to SKAI and on the program “Kalimera” with Fai Mavragani, Niki Kerameos.

As Ms. Kerameos pointed out, “there will be a basic unemployment benefit and on top of that a bonus that will take into account the person’s insurance history, in order to be more fair and remunerative. The second is to make it front-loading, in the first months the state will come to support you dynamically and then it will decrease to motivate you to find a job.”

The two main changes to the unemployment benefit are – as the Minister of Labor said – to make it fairer. “The number of people who will receive the new unemployment benefit will be specific and the selection will be made randomly, through the digital systems,” he added.

Also, Ms. Kerameos emphasized that in the last five years 500,000 new jobs have been created, noting that in the IT sector there was an 85% increase in employment, while in construction there was a 65% increase.

Regarding the Digital Work Card, Ms. Kerameos underlined that “from the summer onwards we have 750,000 workers who are protected by the digital work card”, while “it is being piloted in tourism and catering, a sector with special characteristics”.

According to the Minister of Labour, “since the implementation of the digital labor card, the overtime hours declared in supermarkets have increased by 62%”. “Either it was overtime that was not paid at all or was paid illegally,” said Ms. Kerameos.

Referring to the pensions, Ms. Kerameos emphasized that “progress has been made in the main pensions, 1250 pensions are issued per day”, while in the auxiliary pensions “there are issues, there was a very big effort to put special emphasis on the auxiliary”

Also, the Minister of Labor and Social Security estimated that “the increase in the solidarity contribution will be between 2.2% and 2.5%”. Regarding the issue observed in the Pensioners’ Solidarity Contribution, due to the increases in pensions which result in some pensioners changing their level and instead of benefiting from an increase, Ms. Kerameos emphasized that “we intend to legislate in the near future so as not to there is this distortion. It is an existing distortion and we want to correct it. We are already working on a legislative solution with Mr. Tsakloglou to anticipate the end of December pensions.”