Pension cuts to hit 70 pct by 2019
One in two retirees will soon have to live on just 480 euros a month after all the measures are implemented
The next batchof pension cuts, voted through in the last couple of years and set to come into force within the next two years, will take total losses for pensioners since the start of the bailout period in 2010 up to 70 percent.
A recent European Commission report on the course of Greece’s bailout program revealed that the reforms passed since 2015 will slash up to 7 percent of the country’s gross domestic product up to 2030.
The United Pensioners network has made its own calculations and estimates that the impending cuts will exacerbate pensioners’ already difficult position, with 1.5 million of them threatened with poverty. The network argues that when the cuts expected in 2018 and 2019 are added to those implemented since 2010, the reduction in pensions will reach 70 percent.
Network chief Nikos Hatzopoulos notes that “owing to the additional measures up until 2019, the flexibility in employment and the reduction of state funding from 18 billion to 12 billion euros, by 2021, one in every two pensioners will get a net pension of 550 euros [per month]. If one also takes into account the reduction of the tax-free threshold, the net amount will come to 480 eu- ros.” Pensioners who retired before 2016 stand to lose up to 18 percent of their main and auxiliary pensions, while the new pensions to be issued based on the law introduced in May 2016 by then minister Giorgos Katrougalos will be up to 30 percent lower.
More than 140,000 retirees on low pensions will see their EKAS supplement decrease in 2018, as another 238 million euros per year is to be slashed from the budget for ben- 730.43 1.1847 efits for low income pensioners. The number of recipients will drop from 210,000 to 70,000 in just one year.
There will also be a reduction in new auxiliary pensions (with applications dating from January 2015), a 6 percent cut to the retirement lump sum, and a freeze on existing pensions for another four years, as retirees will not get the nominal raise they would normally receive based on the growth rate and inflation.