Pending supplementary pension advances

Measure concerns those who applied before July 1, 2022 and have been issued a main allowance

Around 40,000 pensioners will receive an advance payment of €100 by March 15 for their supplementary pension, and even retroactively for as long as it has elapsed since the issue of the main pension.

Speaking to Skai TV on Tuesday, Labor and Social Affairs Minister Kostis Hatzidakis said the advance payment will be granted without requiring any action on the part of the beneficiary and will be equal to €100 for each month's delay in the issuance of the supplementary pension.

The advance payment is set at €50 for disability supplementary pensions and for survivors' supplementary pensions (following the death of a spouse).

In other words, if a qualifying person waits a year to receive a supplementary old-age pension, they will receive a lump sum of €1,200 (€100 over 12 months of waiting) by mid-March, if they wait two years, €2,400, and so on.

The measure concerns insured individuals who have applied for a supplementary pension (old age, disability or survivor's), before July 1, 2022 and for whom a decision on the main pension has been issued. More specifically, for supplementary old-age pensions, the applicant must have completed at least 15 years of supplementary insurance (or 4,500 days of supplementary insurance).

The relevant provision is expected to be tabled as an amendment in Parliament by Hatzidakis, in order for the amounts to be paid to the pensioners-in-waiting in the middle of next month.

When asked how many potential beneficiaries of the measure of advance pension payment there are, Hatzidakis noted the overdue supplementary pensions for which a decision on the main pension has already been issued come to about 80,000.

A new intervention is also being promoted for the more efficient operation of the mechanism for issuing supplementary pensions with a fast-track procedure. This means that supplementary pensions will be issued by the last former institution to which the pensioner belonged, in the case of pensioners who have 15 years of supplementary insurance (4,500 days) if they are 67 years old or all or part of their supplementary insurance has gone to the former ETEAM (Single Fund for Employees' Supplementary Insurance) or supplementary insurance institutions that were integrated into it. This measure is expected to simplify and speed up the pension procedure.