This year a 2.4% increase will be given to all pensions, said the Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Security
The Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Security Panos Tsakloglou was, today, on the “NEWS ROOM” program of ERT and talked about pensions, the upcoming increases, the extraordinary allowance and the demographic.
He initially explained: “There is no scope because it is 2.4% which is for all pensions, for all pensions except for those who have a personal difference, but for whom we have taken other measures, in the last three years, what is being done is we give increases in pensions, which are half the sum of the rate of economic growth and the rate of inflation. Based on these things, this year a 2.4% increase will be given to all pensions”.
Asked about the overdue pensions, he replied: “There has been a huge effort which has paid off. That is, when the government took over in 2019 it was really in the hundreds of thousands. We didn’t know the exact numbers. In the main pensions what was recorded was around 170,000. But the thing was, we kept finding sticky applications, which were in a bag, in cupboards, on desks, you name it, so it’s a bit hard to tell you where they were. At the moment, there are 19,500 of those that we call overdue, that is, those that are more than three months old and have not been issued (….).
Now all this for supplementary pensions, where the number is a little higher. There is the problem that in the past, if you remember well, there were a lot of auxiliary funds which were various small and which only have the file, where the result is that if you have 2 or 3 such the corresponding employee of the EFKA it goes to all the corresponding ones you have seen and finds the corresponding folder and calculates the pension”.
Then Mr. Tsakloglou mentioned that EFKA is preparing two major projects, one is the digitization of the insurance history of all insured persons while the second is that an integrated information system has been created for EFKA.
He then pointed out to whom the extraordinary allowance concerns: “What will be done is that an allowance will be given which will be graduated and inversely proportional to the pensioner’s pension. That is, if it is up to 700 euros, it will be 200 euros. From 700 to 1,100 will be 150 euros, from 150 to 1,600 euros will be 100 euros and this will also be paid before Christmas.”
Special mention was made of the solidarity levy, while to a question about demographics, as he participated in Budapest, in the informal session of the ministers responsible for demographics, he answered: “It is not only Greece’s and in fact I would like to say that gradually, while in the past it was a problem of only developed countries, it is gradually becoming a problem of developing countries as well”.
He also pointed out that it is very important for young people to be strengthened in order to have an independent life.
