Labor Minister Adonis Georgiadis presented the new bill to the cabinet.
Cabinet on Wednesday approved a social security bill that includes provisions aimed at strengthening the incomes of pensioners and facilitating the retirement of insured persons, as well as fundamental interventions in the institution of professional insurance of the second pillar.
According to the provisions presented by Labor Minister Adonis Georgiadis and his deputy Panos Tsakloglou, the payment of the personal difference allowance to hundreds of thousands of pensioners is guaranteed by law, people with debts to the Single Social Security Fund (EFKA) of up to 30,000 euros will able to claim their pensions, the 30% penalty in the pension of those who continue to work is abolished and a contribution to EFKA is imposed on income from employment. The maternity allowance, meanwhile, is extended to self-employed women.
The provisions that have already caused market turbulence and concern the revision of the tax regime that governs not only Occupational Insurance Funds but also group insurance policies, provide for a tax between 5% to 20% on lump sum benefits, depending on the time of insurance and participation in the program, and respectively 2.5% to 10% if the insured person chooses to receive the benefit as a pension.
