End to bogus pension payment to save Greek state 420 mln
The 53,694 pensioners who failed to participate in a census and whose payments will now cease were costing the state some 420 million euros per year, it has emerged, leading to the conclusion that certain individuals had been collecting payments without being entitled to them.
Labor Ministry data released on Wednesday also show that an additional 319,600 people submitted insufficient data in the process of the pensioners’ census and are now at risk of having their monthly pension payments stopped.
The amount the state paid to people who were unentitled to pensions is even greater than the additional revenues state coffers collected through the controversial increase in value-added tax on food catering from 13 percent to 23 percent, amounting to 400 million euros in the 12 months of 2012.
The total number of pensioners recorded by the Labor Ministry is 4,390,378.
