nine out of ten freelancers, self-employed and farmers, out of a total of 1.3 million insured with EFKA, have also opted for category 1 insurance for 2023, paying up to 240.25 euros per month for basic insurance, health and unemployment, although they know that after 20 years of insurance, staying in the lower category results in a pension that does not reach 510 euros gross. Even after 40 years of insurance, as long as they remain in the first category, their pension will not exceed 770 euros gross.

According to him EFKA Where “K” shows and regarding the final selection of the 1.3 million insured self-employed for the whole of 2023 is not much different from what they did the previous year, which is also due to the fact that contributions increased by 9.6% this year. In particular, this year 1,035,519 self-employed people chose category 1, which corresponds to 79.49% of insured self-employed people, compared to 1,035,519 insured people (79.91%) with the corresponding choice a year ago. To those who chose the lowest category should be added 131,811 young professionals and self-employed, which corresponds to 10.12% of the total number who chose the special category, which applies only to those with less than five years of professional experience, and now stands at 148 .15 euros (basic insurance, health and unemployment). In practice, this means that nine out of ten insured self-employed have chosen the lowest category, knowing that this leads to a very low pension.

The difference that separates the first category from the second is only 46.06 euros per month, while the second category of 286.31 euros was chosen by only 56,171 people (4.31%). After all, so many insured people chose the second category in 2022, when it was 262 euros per month.

Even after 40 years of insurance, the first category pension does not exceed 770 euros gross.

Accordingly, only 35,235 self-employed (2.7% of the total) chose the 3rd category, while another 21,021 (1.61%) chose the 4th EFKA insurance category. Finally, there are also 10,071 insured persons (0.77%) who chose the 5th insurance category, as well as 12,857 (0.99%) who were insured in the highest, 6th insurance category, which corresponds to 630.6 euros for basic insurance, health and unemployment per person. month.

So, as indicated in “K” social security experts, the vast majority of the unemployed are trapped in very low future pensions, because, based on what has been in effect so far, a person with 20 years of insurance experience paying a low first category will receive a pension that will not exceed 510 euros. gross. If the same specialist chooses insurance under the third category within the same 20 years, his pension at the end of the insurance period will be 571 euros. If, instead of 20 years, a professional works for 40 years, choosing the lowest first category of insurance, then the pension he will receive will be about 771 euros, and if he is insured under the sixth category for 40 consecutive years, then his basic pension will be formed in the amount of 1634 euros in month.

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It should be noted that the latest increase, although provided for by law, comes at a really difficult time for professionals and the self-employed. Characteristically, they note that the 9.6% increase significantly burdens the professional budget of freelancers and scientists, as it acts additively and multiplicatively to the already existing financial burden due to the memorandum policy, the consequences of the pandemic and the energy and inflationary crisis, and makes the viability of thousands of freelancers, scientists and businesses problematic. “An increase that does not follow any logic, given, in particular, that FECA’s revenues increased by 78% in 2021-2022, pensions did not increase, FECA’s obligations to the insured were not fulfilled and thousands of insured people (816,000 in the last five years and 350,000 in 2022) lost their agreements,” their representatives say. Concluding that “the only thing the increase in contributions will do is create new debts, new generations of debtors, loss of insurance rights, even health insurance, and serious damage to the core of the Greek economy, the middle class.”