Thousands of retirees waiting for pensions
The number of outstanding applications for benefits by retirees who have paid into the single auxiliary social security fund (ETEAEP) exceeds 90,000, which is proving a major headache for the fund’s administration as well as the Labor and Social Security Ministry.
The latest ETEAEP data show that, on August 31, the number of applications for auxiliary pensions that had not been dealt with stood at 91,158, of which the vast majority concerned applications submitted after January 1, 2015. The latter will be calculated according to the Katrougalos law (named after a former minister) introduced in May 2016, meaning they will be much smaller than what the previous calculation method used to provide for.
One result of the delays is that ETEAEP’s figures show a net surplus, but they have also caused anger among retirees, as ETEAEP’s failure to deal with the issue means they are also forced to wait for their main pensions from the Single Social Security Entity (EFKA).
In this context, the ministry and ETEAEP’s management have decided to set up task forces to accelerate the processing of pending applications. The timetable created provides for 60 percent of the application backlog to have been cleared by next summer.
