Minimum pension ages set to soar
The minimum retirement age for thousands of workers who until this summer’s third bailout agreement could have retired with a full or reduced pension before reaching their 67th birthday will rise by between six months and 17 years up to 2022, according to a draft ministerial decision seen by Kathimerini.
These new minimum retirement ages concern all those who had been due to receive an old-age pension from the country’s social security funds, including the Bank of Greece, but who had not completed the necessary prerequisites for a full or reduced pension by the time the third bailout was introduced.
The minimum ages will now be raised gradually up to January 1, 2022, when all workers will only be able to collect a pension on or after their 67th birthday, unless they have completed 40 years of work, in which case they will qualify at the age of 62 at the earliest.
Workers will get a new minimum retirement age depending on the year when they could have retired according to the previous law, until everyone is gradually on the same level. Therefore, if a worker was supposed to start collecting their pension at 56 in 2018, they will now have to wait until their 59th birthday.
Workers who had no set pensionable age restrictions under the previous law will now be able to retire according to the transitional age limit corresponding to their case. Therefore, if they were supposed to retire after 35 years of service, they will now also have to wait until they are 58 years old.
The ministerial decision, which is expected to be signed in the next few days, will also determine the method that will be used to apply the additional 10 percent penalty on reduced-pension retirement cases owing to old age. It will determine that the additional penalty be calculated on the amount of pension due after the cuts already provided, and will be imposed for the period until the completion of the new age of full-pension retirement which varies by worker.
