A provision that will provide for the statute of limitations for debts to EFKA will be included in the next insurance bill to be submitted to Parliament, however, as the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Mr. Kostis Hatzidakis clarified, speaking on a television station earlier today, the beneficial provision only concerns debtors “who have not been sought after the lapse of ten years”.
“We are trying to take measures within the framework of logic”, said Mr. Hatzidakis characteristically, adding that “if EFKA gave away the debts, it would not have contributions to give pensions. We, knowing the problem that has been created, will proceed with harmonizing the regulations that exist from the Tax Office, with the corresponding regulations in EFKA”. For example, where there is a debt settlement in 24 installments in AADE and a settlement in 12 installments in EFKA, both debts will be harmonized in 24 installments “in order to rationalize the system”, emphasized the minister.
In addition, as he said, there will be compliance with the “Council decision that reduces the statute of limitations for debts from 20 years to 10 years, as it was before the Katrougalou law, regarding debts to the IKA” while he underlined once again that it is “a statute of limitations for debts that have not been sought by EFKA within 10 years. If they have been sought, they are not statute-barred. Just as they are not statute-barred anywhere and were not statute-barred before the Katrougalou law.” Explaining the reasoning behind the decision, the minister commented that if debts sought by EFKA were barred, there would be a “moral hazard”, that debtors would have the incentive to be inconsistent with their obligations.
“We will rationalize the system and comply with the decisions of the CoE. Because if we said “you are not bored, you have not paid for 10 years and then we give you away”, one would have to be stupid to pay to EFKA and the insurance system would collapse ” concluded Mr. Hatzidakis regarding the issue.
In the final stretch for the issuance of the main pensions
After August 15, it is expected that the official data regarding the pending main pensions will be announced, however the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, Mr. Kostis Hatzidakis, pointed out that his assessment is that “all pensions will have been issued by 2019” with the exemption of “those who owe more than the limits or others who have legal complications”. The minister noted that “the goal is now to clean up in 2020 as well” as the pensions that have already been adjusted are around 97-97.5%. “We are very well in 2021 and 2022,” said Mr. Hatzidakis, for which “it is typical that of those who applied until April to receive a pension, approximately 75% have already received it”.
“The problem at this time is basically focused on the State”, in which for “administrative reasons, there is indeed a delay”, said the minister, clarifying that “half of the pensions due” currently concern former employees of the State. Regarding this issue, the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs has started cooperation with the Ministry of Digital Governance and the General Secretariat of Information Systems since May in order to advance automation procedures. “Now in August and even more so in September there will be a final attack on the State as well” emphasized Mr. Hatzidakis who underlined that it is “a matter of one or two months” to deal with the outstanding debts to the pensioners of the State. He clarified that because the specific pensions will be calculated with automation systems, centrally, citizens who call the General Accounting Office of the State, cannot actually receive more information.
“In fact, at this time, we’re down to a real backlog of about 35,000, maybe less, and we’re going to try to close it now by the end of the summer term, we’re on the final stretch. It’s an issue that’s been a national embarrassment. Last year at that time we had 120-130 thousand outstanding pensions” pointed out Mr. Hatzidakis, adding that “immediately after that, we will do our best for the auxiliary pensions because we started with the main ones, which was the biggest problem”. He noted that the calculation of supplementary pensions will be simpler, as the main ones will have already been issued.
Referring to the reduction of backlogs, the minister stated that “it is the result of an overall effort and the use of new methods. Because we achieved all this thanks to the help of course from EFKA employees, there is no doubt, but with 900 fewer employees. Because we used more new technologies, other management methods, the electronic control tower and we got here”.
SOURCE: APE-ME
Source: Capital
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