2024-09-23 13:43:45
A series of errors and omissions, as well as court decisions, either issued or expected, lead tens of thousands of pensioners to wait to receive retroactive amounts owed to them.
This is a new budgetary pressure on EFKA and it needs to be managed, as the cost seems to be around €800 million. That is why the payment of any retroactives that have arisen or are about to arise will be made by sections. At the forefront is the pending legal battle over cuts to supplementary pensions and gifts.
It is estimated that the beneficiaries who have filed lawsuits against the State amount to 370,000, while a possible positive decision cannot be ruled out causing a demand for universal satisfaction of all pensioners. The request is for a final decision from the Supreme Special Court (SEC), which is expected to happen in the fall.
The decision at the Ministry of Labor
Subsequently and based on this decision, the Ministry of Labor will be asked to decide whether to cover by paying retroactive amounts only those who have appealed to Justice or all pensioners. The specific legal dispute concerns cuts in supplementary pensions and gifts, both main and auxiliary, that took place in 2012. Since then, at least four positive court decisions have emerged, with the last one issued by the Supreme Court and concerning pensioners coming from the private sector .
These decisions, however, are in contrast to similar ones taken by the Court of Auditors and they focus on pensioners of the State. Now, the AED is called upon to bridge any differences and decide whether the pensioners claiming amounts, as retroactive, should be vindicated or not. At the same time, EFKA estimates that there are approximately 45,000 retired Armed Forces, who have a sum of pensions that exceeds 1,000 euros and are retroactively entitled to 27 months from the recalculation of the reservations.
This is an error that was detected in March 2023 and corrected the very next month, with the pensions of the specific beneficiaries increasing since then. Normally, however, the reduced deductions should have been applied from 1 January 2021.
According to reliable information, EFKA aims to make the specific retroactive payments, at the latest by Christmas this year or at the beginning of January. Also, about 50,000 pensioners of the former ETAA (engineers, notaries, lawyers and health workers), based on recent court decisions, should be granted increases, after the pensions they receive are recalculated. The specific error is to be corrected by EFKA after first receiving the final court decisions that vindicate the pensioners.
Who else is entitled to supplementary pension increases?
In addition to the above, approximately 100,000 new pensioners, from 2015 onwards, are entitled to retroactive increases in supplementary pensions, because they were issued without calculating the additional contributions they paid as insured. It has also been estimated that there are 10,000 NAT pensioners with errors in the recalculation of their pensions, who should receive increases and the corresponding retroactive increases. At the same time, thousands of State pensioners are awaiting two-year retroactive payments (from 2018 and 2019) from the Solidarity Contribution to their main pensions. However, it is estimated that there will be developments and an increase in the number of beneficiaries, because in addition to individual court decisions, the detention was ruled unconstitutional for the specific period, regardless of how many had appealed. In any case, there is a question of interpretation of the court decision, although the political leadership of the Ministry of Labor has made it clear that they will fully respect it