Retirement

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.

Changes in the age of retirement are the only tool remaining for the protection of Greek pensioners from poverty, as all other intervention measures have been exhausted, according to a report issued on Monday by the European Commission.

Almost 1.5 million Greeks are trapped in a poverty spiral, with considerably low salaries and pensions, as state statistics reveal.

The crisis has left its indelible mark on the lives of workers, as almost one-third of workers in the private sector are in flexible forms of employment and have to survive on an average gross monthly salary of just 383 euros.

From March, tens of thousands of engineers in Greece - from civil engineers to chemical engineers - will have to pay 86 percent of their average monthly takings in social security contributions.

The management of the Single Social Security Entity (EFKA) is planning an extraordinary issue of new pensions on November 28 and at least one more batch within December, with the aim of drastically reducing outstanding pension applications by the end of the year.

Around 150 policemen gathered in front of the regional parliament Tuesday, demanding that legislators reject a proposed law on pensions which they say would lower their retirement payouts by 30 per cent. 

One million retirees can expect to see their monthly pension drop 14 percent in 2019 as a result of the agreement the government reached last year with the country's creditors regarding the so-called personal difference (the gap between the pension as calculated according to the old method and that using the new calculation system).

Some 200,000 self-employed professionals will next year be forced to pay double social security contributions to the auxiliary fund for retirement lump sums.

Auxiliary pensions have been in steady decline for some time now and are likely to shrink even further, to less than 100 euros a month, according to a scientific study seen by Kathimerini.

The analyzes show that the pension system will be stable by 2040, but then reform will be needed to avoid a crisis, announced Social Minister Bisser Petkov on bTV on Monday.