Pension cuts from 2019 will amount to 14 percent

One million retirees can expect to see their monthly pension drop 14 percent in 2019 as a result of the agreement the government reached last year with the country’s creditors regarding the so-called personal difference (the gap between the pension as calculated according to the old method and that using the new calculation system).

The precise rate of the cuts became public for the first time on Monday, with the issue of the European Commission’s report on the course of the third bailout program.

Also on Monday Deputy Labor and Social Security Minister Tasos Petropoulos issued a circular that opens the way for the retirement of thousands of people who due to the high unemployment of the last few years have not worked enough years since 2002 for them to have their pension calculated – given that the law introduced last year provides for the calculation of pensions based on salaries since 2002.