Soaring pension applications
Already, according to European Commission data, the rate of new applications is up 24% compared to what was initially estimated by the Labor Ministry, so the target for the clearing of overdue applications has been set back to February 2023. The EU data concern last August, when the cost of expired dues reached 70 million euros.
Now, according to the ministry, the dues are estimated at around €10 million, of which the majority concerns inflexible applications, which will ultimately be rejected. Worryingly, pension applications have soared, as 180,000 new applications for a main pension had been submitted by end-October this year, when over the whole of 2020 the number of applications submitted did not exceed 176,000.
Social security experts estimate that this year, as in 2021, the exodus will far exceed the previous mass retirement waves recorded in 2010, due to the increase in the age limits imposed by the first bailout (135,000 applications), and the applications of the 1998-2006 period, dominated by the large voluntary exit scheme at OTE telecom, the Public Power Corporation and the banks.
In the 2021 exodus, with 212,151 applications, teachers and health workers took the lead, with estimates pointing to a similar mass departure mainly of teachers and public servants in general during the last couple of months of 2022. This is due to changes in the special retirement age limits in the state to receive a reduced pension, as they are included in the social security bill that is expected to be voted by Parliament in the coming days.
The data of the Atlas pension database for 2022, specifically from January to October, show that 179,878 pension applications were submitted. In total, 212,151 applications were submitted in 2021, a year characterized by an explosive increase in retirements; in the first 10 months 169,433 applications had been submitted.
