Self-employed will be able to keep working while getting a pension

A Labor Ministry draft law is set to give self-employed professionals the option of continuing to run their businesses after having submitted the documents for their retirement.

This should make life easier for thousands of professionals who want to keep working after they reach retirement age, as they will no longer have to close their books and end their professional activity, retaining instead the right to work as pensioners with a reduction in their monthly handout.

According to Deputy Minister for Social Security Tasos Petropoulos, the clause will allow the self-employed who are eligible for retirement to keep their company open as long as they declare to the Single Social Security Fund (EFKA) that they want to keep working when they submit their retirement application. This way they will receive 40 percent of their pension, as is the case for all other retiring professionals, such as salary workers.

To date, many self-employed people have been forced to shut their businesses or transfer them to a family member in order to retire, even though they wished to continue. There were also cases of professionals who stopped working but later realized they did not meet the conditions for receiving a pension and had to resume work.