Tsakloglou: Who Retired Are entitled to the temporary allowance at Christmas

Pensions, forthcoming increases, temporary allowance and demographics were the issues discussed by the State Secretary for Labour and Social Security, today (24.11.2024) on the NEWS ROOM show, reporting on the special Christmas allowance. In particular, Mr Tsakloglou initially said whether pensions would increase, according to the ertnews, explaining that “there is no range because it is 2.4% which is for all pensions, for all pensions except those who have a personal difference, but for which we have taken other measures, in the last three years, what we are doing is giving increases in pensions, which are the half sum of the rate of economic growth and inflation. Based on these things, this year will give a 2.4% increase in all pensions.” Asked for outstanding pensions answer: “A huge effort has been made that has borne fruit. That is, when the government took over in 2019 it was really in the hundreds of thousands. We didn’t exactly know the numbers. In the main pensions what was recorded was about 170,000. But the thing was that we kept finding stickers, which were in a bag, lockers, offices, whatever you want, so it’s a little hard to tell you where it was. At present it is at 19,500 what we call overdue, which is more than three months and has not been issued. (…). Now this is all about auxiliary pensions, where the number is a little larger. There is the problem of that earlier, if you remember correctly, there were too many auxiliary funds which were various small and which only have the file, where the result is that if you have in 2 or 3 such should the corresponding employee of the EPKA go to all the corresponding ones you have seen and find the folder the corresponding one and calculate the pension.” Then Mr. Tsakloglou said that EPKA is preparing two major projects, one being the digitization of the insurance history of all insured persons, while the second is that an integrated information system for the EPKA has been created. He then pointed out who the allowance relates to: “What will be done is an allowance which will be scaled and vice versa proportional to the pension of the pensioner. So if it’s up to 700 euros, it’ll be 200 euros. From 700 to 1,100 will be 150 euros, from 150 to 1,600 euros will be 100 euros and this will also be paid before Christmas.” A special reference was made to the solidarity contribution and to a question on demographics, as it participated in Budapest at the informal meeting of the Ministers responsible for demographics, replied: “It’s not just Greece and I would like to say that gradually, while it used to be only a problem for developed countries, it gradually becomes a problem for developing countries as well.” He also pointed out that young people are very important to be strengthened to have an independent life.