More retiree applications processed
Pending pension applications have shown a considerable decline in the last year, although they remain above 130,000 (not including international applications).
The April data of the Labor Ministry’s Atlas pensions database recorded a decline of outstanding applications by retirees for a seventh straight month, and that was despite the doubling of new applications filed. The statistics released yesterday showed pending applications came to 132,605 at the end of April, while a year earlier – when Greece was in its strictest lockdown – the figure had stood at 170,280. This signifies a backlog reduction of 37,675 applications within a year. There was also a reduction compared to the previous months.
Crucially, there has also been a rise in the pace of issues of new, final pensions as, according to Atlas, 18,531 applications were processed in April against 10,633 in April 2019 and just 7,071 in April 2020. The rate of application processing in April 2021 was 74% higher than in 2019 and 162% above the April 2020 rate.
Atlas further showed new applications rose to 13,058 this year against just 6,545 in April 2020.
