Retroactive payments for pensioners It started and continues gradually the EPKA with amounts reaching an average of 2,500 euros and coming from the tally count, in their pension for the period they continued to employ.
For each year of employment, pensioners have an increase in pension with a substitution factor of 0.77%
The list of beneficiaries is a total of 25,000 pensioners who continued to work after retirement and then discontinued their employment, establishing a right to a pension increase.
The retroactive payments paid by the EPKA concern older pension workers who continued to work up to 7 years after retirement earning increases of over EUR 130 per month in their pensions.
For each year of employment, pensioners have an increase in pension calculated at a factor of 0.77% on the salary. If they are employed as freelance professionals, monthly pension contributions converted into a salary by 0.20% shall be taken into account.
Pensioners who declare that they are employed after retirement reach 300,000 according to the latest available data from the EFFA, of which about 110,000 work without having to pay contributions or without paying a special employment resource because they belong to the categories legally excluded from the payment of the corresponding amounts.
What has changed
It is noted that the scheme for retired workers has changed since 1 January 2024 and remains the same today. In particular the old horizontal cut in the pension has been replaced by a special resource for e-EFKA, which is imposed on the work or activity of the pensioner.
For employed pensioners, the basic reservation is 10% of the insured earnings. This resource is borne solely by the pensioner himself, is withheld from the employer and attributed to the e-EFKA along with the remaining contributions. At the same time, the normal insurance contributions corresponding to employment continue to be paid.
For non-employed persons, i.e. self-employed persons, self-employed persons and farmers, there is no rate on salary, but an additional charge is imposed on the insurance category. In practice, the pensioner shall pay the contributions provided for in his category and in addition the non-retributory e-EFCA resource, as provided for in the same Article and the relevant implementing circulars.
It is important that in the case of multiple insurance the resource is not imposed once overall, but automatically for each insured employment. Therefore, if a pensioner simultaneously has two insurance activities, the charge shall be calculated separately for each person.
There is, however, a ceiling: the total amount of the resource on an annual basis cannot exceed 12 times the national pension in question. If an above amount arises, this shall be refunded after liquidation.
Exceptions are provided for in the reservations. The e-EFKA states that no resource is imposed, inter alia, on disabled pensioners, on certain specific categories, as well as on farmers retired from the former OGA who continue their agricultural activity. Also, for pensioners of other rural-income funds, an exception is provided when the annual net taxable income from agricultural employment does not exceed EUR 10,000.
At the same time the recalculation of the pension without the obligation to stop work is at the heart of the changes brought about by the Ministry of Labour. Today, the current scheme provides that the increases resulting from post-retirement work are incorporated into the pension only after the termination of employment.
This results in thousands of pensioners waiting for a long time to receive all the benefits they are entitled to, while the administrative mechanism is also burdened with accumulated recalculations.
The new regulation provides for a recalculation of pension every five years, allowing pensioners to gradually see their income increase even if they remain active in the labour market. In this way, not only is the faster reimbursement of contributions, but also the decongestion of e-EFKA services, which are currently called upon to manage a large volume of outstanding issues.
