It puts an end to the waiting of thousands of citizens for the issuance of a pension with an amendment submitted to Parliament by the Ministry of Labor. The aim is to put an end to the hostage-taking of insured people who often have 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.
Fast track pensions
According to the amendment, from now on EFKA will be obliged to issue pensions within three months, ie to complete the relevant control within this period. And what if this does not happen within that time is the next reasonable question.
Then the competent services to issue the decision should be based on two data: On the one hand on the data contained in the electronic system “ATLAS” for the insurance history of the applicant, on the other hand on the additional data that he has provided for the time of his insurance .
Trust pensions
Especially for the 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 the insured for recognition of pension time in addition to that resulting from the aforementioned systems. 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. 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.
How the checks will be done
Pension deeds issued under expedited procedures are audited within three (3) years from their issuance and in any case, until the lapse of five (5) years from the 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.
If the audit finds that the insurance period taken into account for the issuance of the pension is longer than the actual time up to two (2) years, the insured is allowed to cover the respective insurance contributions within one year, either by payment or withholding from the pension paid, either by combining the two ways. Insurance contributions are covered either at their current value or in a manner 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.
It is clarified that the restrictions on the audit, its time point and the recovery of unduly paid amounts do not apply in cases where the retirement decision was issued following fraudulent behavior 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.
Determination of insurance time
Regarding the data that can be used to determine the insurance time and to speed up the process of granting pensions, it is provided as a general principle that any suitable data or document will be used to prove the insurable status and the insurance time 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 sickness booklets are used to find the insurance time in the former IKA-ETAM
All public service documents in which the pension applicant has been employed on the basis of the provisions of the successive pension shall be taken into account, provided that the period of service, the insurance and the payment of the contributions result from this.
The auxiliary insurance time is used in the IKA-ETAM company 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.
It paves the way for the utilization – with the aim of accelerating the award of pensions – of modern computer tools and, in particular, of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) technology as well as methods of automated data analysis.
The regulation for the process of submitting a retirement request is also 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.
Identification of insurance periods
There are two ways in which policyholders 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 to establish the right to full retirement, provided that they have not recognized more than 5 fictitious years of insurance. In this case, they recognize up to 150 days of insurance by 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 conditions of ability to work, and for a period of up to 3 years, for those who seek to retire and had at least 500 working days within a calendar period of five (5 ) years before the date of submission of the pension application.
Source: Capital

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