Pensioners are in for a windfall in the last quarter

The final quarter of the year will primarily be the payment period for retroactive dues to hundreds of thousands of pensioners, as besides the large 1.4-billion-euro package projected to be paid out to about 1 million pensioners at the end of October, the state will disburse an extra €460 million to retirees in November and December.

This additional amount concerns retroactive dues from the recalculation of 14 months of main pensions for pensioners who worked for more than 30 years, the dues to pensioners who are still employed, and money stemming from the recent changes to temporary pensions.

The first payout will concern the dues from the 2012 cuts – i.e. the return of cuts from main pensions in the period from June 2015 to May 2016. According to Labor Minister Yiannis Vroutsis, in the next few days the ministry will submit to Parliament a legal clause for the payment of those dues to public sector pensioners too. The government’s aim is to return the definitive amounts to all recipients based on the reading it makes of the recent verdict by the Council of State. The payment is expected in the latter half of October.

Next month will also see hikes in the temporary pensions that the Single Social Security Entity (EFKA) has issued since May 2016. Many pensioners will see their temporary handout grow to 80% of the average in their last year of employment, against an original 50%.

Then in November there will be increases of up to 75% in the pensions that retirees still working receive, with the retroactive dues adding up to nine months.

The new batch of retroactive dues is anticipated by December, and according to the government comes to about €460 million. This is the sum of various amounts stemming from the social security reform that has become known as the Vroutsis law, which was voted in in February 2020 but some of its clauses apply retroactively from October 2019; it also stems from recent legislative interventions by the Labor Ministry.