e-EFKA: Significant de-escalation of pending main pensions

The problem of overdue pending main pensions is headed for a definitive solution, since, as it appears from the latest available data of the Electronic National Social Security Agency (e-EFKA), which were made public, 95% of the main pensions have been issued, the applications of which were submitted from 2016 until July 31, 2022. According to the body, this percentage is expected to increase further with the integration of the August data and the liquidation of potentially inflexible or rejected pension applications.

In fact, e-EFKA reports that in July a new record was set in the issuance of pensions with 30,200 awards and emphasizes that the schedule for the issuance of the last overdue pensions, which remain, is progressing without delays, with an implementation horizon of the end of the summer.

It is recalled that the outstandings for the years 2016-2018 have already been zeroed, as well as the outstanding main pensions submitted in the year 2019. At the same time, the outstanding pensions for 2020 are also being zeroed out, considering that, at the end of July, 95 had been cleared .6% of the applications submitted, while, for 2021, the corresponding percentage reaches 85.2%. Finally, for 2022, 82% of the applications submitted, during the first five months of the year, have already been issued, an element which, as the agency points out, proves the significant acceleration in processing new applications, an acceleration which in many cases allows a pension to be issued even within 60 days.

The Regions with the highest performance in issuing pending pensions

The figures of the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs and the competent services of e-EFKA show that, recently, significant progress has been made in the de-escalation of overdue pension applications, but also in the timing of issuance of new pensions.

Based on the data, the South Aegean Region holds the scepter of the fastest awarding of pending pension applications compared to other Regions of the country, as it has issued 96.45% of the pending main pensions, whose applications were submitted from 2016 to on July 31, 2022.

Apart from the South Aegean Region, the top five with the highest performance in the issuance of pending main pensions – for applications submitted in the aforementioned period – include the Regions of Central Greece with a percentage of completion of pension applications, during the period 1/1/2016-31/ 7/2022, 95.61%, Central Macedonia with a percentage of 95.59%, Eastern Macedonia and Thrace with a percentage of 94.84% and Western Macedonia with a percentage of 94.50%.

The Region of Western Greece, Kefallinia and Lefkada follows immediately after, which has proceeded to issue 94.31% of the pending main pensions, followed by the Regions of Epirus and Corfu with a percentage of completion of pension requests, during the period 1/1/2016-31 /7/2022, 94.17%, Attica with a percentage of 92.95%, Peloponnese with a percentage of 92.38% and Thessaly with a percentage of 92.32%, while the last two positions are occupied by the Regions of Crete with a percentage of 91.55% and North Aegean with a percentage of 88.69%.

As e-EFKA sources note, the results of the performances depend to a large extent on the volume of applications received and processed by the competent services of the organization per Region. For example, the prefecture of Attica manages more pension cases than any other Region of the country.

At the same time, the same sources emphasize that the progress that has been achieved is due both to the work of e-EFKA employees and to a series of actions and policies implemented by the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs and the organization’s administration.

Undoubtedly, as they emphasize, a key role in speeding up the process of granting pending pensions is played by the operation of the Control Tower in e-EFKA, a modern digital system for monitoring pending pensions, as well as those issued daily by the agency’s awarding departments.

Among other things, the same sources state that the Control Tower is upgrading the e-EFKA as a whole and allows the administration, the General Directorate of Pensions and the directors of the awarding structures throughout Greece, to have immediate information, 24 hours a day and in real time , for all data concerning:

– the number of pending pensions both overall and per Fund, as well as per application category (old age, disability, etc.),

– the number of pensions issued per Fund and per day, month, year, etc.,

– the number of pensions issued by Region throughout Greece and

– the number of pensions issued per directorate, but also per rapporteur.

How many pensions are pending?

Finally, based on July data, overdue main pensions were limited to 56,000. However, as already announced, the number of pending pensions that can be issued is much lower and is estimated at 36,000, a large part of which has already been issued within August.

According to e-EFKA’s clarifications, there are approximately 20,000 pension cases that are judged to be potentially inflexible or are expected to be rejected. These cases concern about 11,000 applications, where no pension right is established by law, 2,000 applications with debts above the limits, which have not been settled, 1,000 cases with open legal pending cases with the EFKA and 6,000 applications that lack a medical opinion.

The majority of the remaining pensions concern State pensions, where a plan to de-escalate the backlog is already being implemented in collaboration with the General Secretariat of Public Administration Information Systems of the Ministry of Digital Governance, with the aim of creating a fully automated issuing process, while, according to the planning , after the liquidation of the overdue pending main pensions, the procedure for issuing the pending supplementary pensions will follow, as the issuance of the final main pension of an insured person is a condition for the issuance of his final supplementary pension.

Source: AMPE