By Kostas Katikos
Exemption from the cuts in the Gifts to the main pensions received specific categories of State pensioners with a disability of more than 80%, but without the exception of those with a disability of 80% or more from private sector funds.
But without a gift are all pensioners with a disability pension of more than 80%, whether they come from the public or from the private sector, who retired after the Katrougalos Act, which after 13/5/2016.
This distinction raises issues of unequal treatment among pensioners with the same characteristics.
The $800 per year gift is still paid to the State pensioners who left before the Katrougalos Act with a disability of more than 80% in the form of a monthly increase of 66.7 euros. The rescue of the Gift and its integration into the monthly payment of the pension was made by a relevant provision of Law 4111/2013.
The payment of the Gift to pensioners with a disability of 80% is shown in the EPKA pension payment notes. In the "monthly payment analysis" column, the amounts of national and repayable pension are shown, the reservations and below are "hidden" the Gift called "Law 4111/20123 increase" and are paid divided on a 12-month basis with an increase of EUR 66.7 per month in the pension.
That is why the payment of the Gift is depicted in the monthly information of pensioners as "an increase in Law 4111/2013".
So pensioners may feel that the benefits in pensions were completely abolished but the reality is different.
Their cut was made for the many pensioners, but for reasons related to protecting certain groups such as disabled pensioners over 80%, holiday Gifts were rescued. Except that not everyone in the same category was rescued, as pensioners with a disability of more than 80% from private sector funds were not excluded from the abolition of the Gifts. This is an unequal treatment which has not been restored to the courts as the Council of State (S.T.E.) to which private sector pensioners, subject to the provisions of Law 612/1977 (blind, paraplegic, etc.) with a disability of more than 80%, rejected their request for the return of the Gift in the same form as those of the State's disability pensioners. The reasoning of S.T.E. Decision 2166/2022 was that for the disabled in the private sector similar provisions are taken (such as paying the extra-institutional allowance of EUR 845 per month) and does not constitute a distinction contrary to the Constitution by not excluding them from other cuts.
Unequal treatment
The exclusion of the disabled pensioners of the State from the abolition of the 800-euro bonus, in addition to being done at double standards, as the pensioners of the private sector remain outside, opens up a large issue of unequal treatment for pensioners after the Katrougalos Act, to whom no gift is paid, whether from the State or from the private sector and with a disability of more than 80%.
The law itself excludes from the payment of the Gift pensioners with the same characteristics (disability over 80%) and from the same body (Public), only because they left after 13/5/2016 that the Katrougalos Act (n.4387/2016) entered into force in which the payment of Gifts is not foreseen for any pensioners.
The government and, in particular, the relevant officials in the Ministry of Labour and Social Security have to restore this great injustice as soon as possible and bring a provision that will resell the $800 gift in the form of a monthly increase of €66.67 to all pensioners with a disability of more than 80% regardless of the body and retirement date.
