Lawyers, accountants to help with pension issue

Certified professionals including lawyers and accountants, will be called in to contribute in the effort of clearing up the backlog of overdue pensions and issuing new ones in a timely manner, Labor and Social Affairs Minister Kostis Hatzidakis tells Kathimerini in an interview.

Having personally invested in speeding up the dispensation of pensions, Hatzidakis points out that quick and efficient solutions are required, adding that the private sector will also contribute to the drive.

“We will be submitting to Parliament a regulation for the further simplification of the dispensation of pensions in the next few days,” Hatzidakis reveals.

He goes on to describe how the new body of certified individuals will operate, stressing that “pensioners do not care at all whether their pension is issued with the assistance of the private sector or not; they are just interested in collecting it.”

“Certified lawyers and accountants will be able to ascertain the period of one’s insured labor and issue a certificating document, they will establish whether the retirees have any outstanding contributions to their funds, and even issue a decision on the granting of a temporary main pension, or even a definitive pension, main or auxiliary. Once certified, they will be able to work on both the outstanding applications and the new ones that will be submitted from here on,” said Hatzidakis.

The minister further says that the next package of measures will mainly concern the simplification of procedures for the cases of successive social security engagements of workers, arguing that to accelerate the issue of pensions the state needs fast, smart and effective solutions.

Hatzidakis also speaks about the upcoming labor bill to be tabled in Parliament, after the market has started reopening. He says that the flexible eight-hour shift system will apply following a personal agreement between the employer and the employee. He adds that “we are interested in new workers creating a personal piggy bank, thereby determining the level of their own pension.”

Source: ekathimerini.com