Up to three years’ wait for a pension

Hundreds of thousands of retirees are finding themselves in financial straits due to two- or even three-year delays in the issuing of their pensions, which also raises another obstacle to the already troubled fourth bailout review.

Calculations by the United Pensioners Network indicate that more than 220,000 pensions and retirement lump sums remain pending, with the waiting time averaging out at two years for the majority of cases, reaching up to three years in cases where individuals paid into more than one main social security fund and in thousands of cases concerning auxiliary pensions.

Despite the greater effort to process new applications due to pressure from the creditors’ representatives, the problem appears to getting worse owing to the delay resulting from the termination of the State General Accounting Office’s General Department for Pensions, which by the end of the month will have to be incorporated into the Single Social Security Entity (EFKA).

The latest bailout agreement update includes specific timetables regarding the course of the state’s overdue arrears, among them the obligatory issue of all outstanding pensions by June 2018. Time is running out and EFKA has been without a director for more than a month.

Source: ekathimerini.com