What applies to insurance capacity

Regarding the issue that has arisen in recent days regarding the granting of insurance capacity to self-employed professionals, the following is clarified by e-EFKA:

On March 1, the insurance capacity was renewed to 8,044,869 insured, retired, direct and indirect members. In a portion of the insured, the insurance capacity was not renewed for the following three main reasons:

A) Either because they have unregulated debts to EFKA- it is reminded that in order for a citizen to obtain insurance capacity he should not owe or if he should have settled his debts. This legislation has been in place for decades and everyone was exceptionally insured last year due to the pandemic,

B) Either because they did not complete 50 insurance stamps in the previous year and according to the law they are not entitled to insurance capacity,

C) Either because even though they paid their debts to EFKA and KEAO normally, their payments to the system have not been shown until today.

For the first case, those who have unregulated debts are given the opportunity to settle them in the KEAO in up to 12 installments and thus receive monthly insurance capacity. In fact, with a legislative provision that is coming to a vote in the Parliament, it will be possible to repay only the debt that concerns the benefits in kind and money in order for someone to receive an annual insurance capacity. An initiative that will benefit thousands of policyholders as they will be able to repay the minimum amount required to obtain insurance capacity.

For the cases of those insured persons who, while paying their debts normally, seem to be in debt, there are indeed delays between the payment of the debt and its settlement in the KEAO system and the current contributions, delays that reflect the problematic structures of the Organization from the moment its creation. These delays create problems not only in the timely receipt of insurance capacity but also in a number of other transactions with EFKA (arrangements, etc.).

The Management of the Organization has set as a priority:

– The interoperability between the information system of current contributions of EFKA and KEAO. The issue is extremely complex and for this reason it has not been possible to date. The interoperability of the systems will solve a number of problems such as the non-transfer of payments from the current contributions system to KEAO due to late payment as well as the creation of a single payment code for current and overdue debts that will facilitate and inconvenience citizens. The aim is for the payments of the insured to be immediately visible in the system and for them to be made in an easy and user-friendly way of the respective electronic service.

– The immediate liquidation of debts that while paid on time by the insured self-employed, self-employed and farmers have not been seen in the system to date. This will happen by March 22. For this reason, especially for the professionals of the former EBRD who face the problem of invalid settlement of prepaid bills, debit balances, etc., their insurance capacity was extended until April 18. These are lawyers, doctors, engineers, pharmacists, notaries, etc. This extension applies both to those who normally pay their debts but have not yet seen the payments in the system, and to those who owe.

– Finally, for the rest of the self-employed but also for the farmers who have paid their debts normally but have not appeared in the system, they can visit a branch of EFKA with the payment receipt and issue insurance capacity. It is reminded that for them the problem will have been solved by March 22.

The Management of EFKA makes a great effort to finally solve the long-standing problems of the Organization. Problems that do not only concern pensions but also issues of contributions, benefits and service as a whole. That is why law 4892/2022 was passed to modernize the Organization in order to provide additional tools to the Management to address such and other complex problems that are observed. Significant progress has already been made on all fronts and it is a bet for the Agency and the immediate resolution of the problem of payments and interoperability between the systems.