Social dividend

This month's budget spending on the "social dividend" is seen reaching up to 200 million euros, against the announced 175 million, as the government is examining the possibility of expanding the number of recipients of the handout from the primary budget surplus overrun.

Social protection spending in Greece fell in 2016 and 2017, according to the latest Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) data, despite the social profile the previous government tried to project, mainly through the handouts made at the end of every year.

The state budget continued on its course toward a primary surplus overrun in October too, with Finance Ministry officials estimating this will top the 346 million euros estimated in next year's budget and get quite close to 400 million instead for the whole of 2019.

The Finance Ministry is dampening expectations of a new round of social handouts, in the form of a Christmas bonus, on top of that issued to pensioners last May.

Finance Ministry sources have noted that the so-called social dividend will go toward the weakest social groups, such as the unemployed and people on low wages, and not just retirees with low pensions.

In just one year some 400,000 "guests" have vanished from the income tax declarations of Greek taxpayers; they used to be declared as "hosted individuals" staying rent-free in the homes of other taxpayers.

It took 2.7 billion euros in new taxes and pension cuts for the government to beat the primary surplus target by 1.9 billion euros this year.

Even Public Power Corporation (PPC) looks set to be among the recipients of the so-called social dividend for 2017 - part of the amount above the primary budget surplus target that the government and the country's creditors agreed last week could reach up to 1.1 billion euros.

By Prokopis Hatzinikolaou

The income criteria for the distribution of the so-called social dividend  – i.e. the share of the primary budget surplus to be handed out to households in need – are expanding to an additional 300,000 families.

The head of the Finance Ministry's General Secretariat for State Revenues, Haris Theoharis, warned on Friday that those submitting bogus data in a bid to qualify for a portion of the so-called social dividend, coming from Greece's primary surplus, would face criminal charges.