The prescription of outstanding debts to EFKA after 10 years and the repayment of debts in 24 installments are among the key reforms in the insurance sector, which are accompanied by the bill “Regulations for the optimization of the insurance system”, which was introduced by the Minister of Labor. Kostis Hatzidakis and Deputy Minister of Social Welfare, Panos Tsakloglu.

“This bill is the fourth legislative intervention of this government in the insurance system,” Mr. Hatzidakis said, adding that “we have focused on some of the injustices that have been operating in the insurance system to date and affect hundreds of thousands of insured persons.”

The political leadership of the Ministry of Labor presented the bill to the cabinet today and then proceeded to the first presentation at the press conference. As Mr. Khatsidakis said, the bill will be submitted for public discussion in the near future.

As Mr. Tsakloglu added, the bill pursues four goals: firstly, to bring order to partial interventions in the insurance system. Second, promote measures to protect special or vulnerable groups. Third, improve service to citizens. Fourth, to harmonize the rules of tax and insurance administration.

Eight major new settings

Under the bill, all former funds will now have a 10-year statute of limitations on debts. The new regulation will apply only to those who do not have a confirmed debt to the former UAEA (that is, they were not informed by it), but not to everyone who owes EFKA, because from 01.01.2027 the limitation period is reduced from ten years to five years .

“We are doing the obvious. In other words, we comply with the decision of the Council of Ministers and move to a 10-year statute of limitations for all Funds … Attention, this agreement applies only to those who do not have a confirmed debt to the FECA. Which one way or another were not notified,” the Minister of Labor said.

The settlement of debts to the EFKA is harmonized with the tax legislation, and thus the installments are increased from 12 to 24. “Another rule of common sense, the tax office and the EFKA belong to the state, they cannot have different rules,” Mr. Hatzidakis.

The special 1% insurance contribution of the former Public Employees Welfare Fund is being abolished, as Panos Tsakloglu has now stated, according to an actuarial study, the fund is now sustainable and there is no need to make this clause in the salaries of civil servants in the future.

The right of “fighting five years” applies to all privates. As the Deputy Minister of Labor said, some cases have not yet been taken into account. With the new regulation, those in uniform who have been exempted from the relevant rule are now eligible to recognize up to five additional years of insurance by paying the appropriate premiums. “We are only changing the coverage, not the rules for granting rights,” he added.

At the moment, everyone who concludes the regulation must, at certain intervals, apply to the court, and there it is established whether the regulation has been observed. In the case of permanent debtors, this creates administrative costs for the public administration, as well as for businesses that have to go to court just to make sure they pay.”

With this change, if and as long as the settlement of debts is respected, the case will enter the Archives and will only leave it if the settlement ceases to be paid, Mr. Tsakloglu explained.

There is a ceiling for high additional pensions, such as notaries. The ceiling is set at 6/20 of the basic pension ceiling, i.e. 1,382.4 euros per month.

The disability rate has been reduced from 67% to 50% for certain groups of insured persons in order to be able to receive disability benefits. The main beneficiaries are mainly the old (before 1993) insured OAEE, NAT, OGA. This, according to the Deputy Minister of Labor, is the first step in a series of initiatives to unify disability pension rules.

This arrangement solves a problem created by the fact that OPECA belatedly identified many cases where citizens received benefits without being entitled to them, “overwhelmingly of them in good faith.”

OPECA stopped the payment of benefits and retroactively demanded to recover the overpaid amounts. With the new intervention, the search for overdue debts from amounts received in good faith is stopped, and favorable measures are taken for other cases, such as: a three-year limitation period for debts, the possibility of repayment in installments, etc.