By Kostas Katikos
Smaller and at a single rate of 10% will be the penalties of the EPKA for unpaid pensions and allowances and with a minimum refund amount of 50 euros per month.
The provision replaces all prior reservations made by pensioners where they continued to receive benefits which they were not entitled to. In IKA, for example, the reimbursement of unpaid benefits was made by withholding 33% of the pension. In the public sector 10% was withheld for the pension department up to 1,000 euros and 1/6, i.e. 16.67% was withheld in the pension department over 1,000 euros with a minimum refund amount of 50 euros per month.
The new provision contained in the Ministry of Labour and Social Security's bill on equal pay for men and women establishes a uniform rate of reimbursement of unduly paid benefits by pensioners who are 10% of the pension with a minimum amount of monthly deduction of 50 euros.
A significant difference between the new and the previous regime is that the 10% penalty will be imposed on the amount of pension left after the detentions of the Solidarity and Disease Contribution have been removed, while before withholding was made to the gross amount of the pension. This difference leads to a reduction in the penalty over the past.
For example, if a pensioner from IKA has a pension of EUR 1,000 and is due from unduly received benefits (e.g. family allowance to be discontinued) 5,000 euros, the EPKA will keep him 10% after he has removed 6% of the sickness contribution from the pension, i.e. the reservation will be imposed at 940 euros and will be 94 euros a month until the debt of 5,000 euros is paid. With the previous retention scheme the pensioner would have withheld 33% in the mixed pension, i.e. paid 330 euros until the $5,000 debt was repaid.
If it is a pension from the State, which receives 1,500 euros in pension and has to repay benefits received without being entitled to them, then the previous scheme would have 100 euros in retention (with 10%) in the first 1,000 euros pension and 83.35 euros (with 16.67%) in the next 500 euros. Overall, it would have withheld EUR 183.33.
The new scheme will remove the solidarity contribution (32 euros) and the sickness contribution (88 euros) and then the pension of the 1,380 euros remaining will have 10% retention, with 138 euros each month against its debt.
What is spared by retired workers
According to competent officials contacted by Capital.gr, the new provision will apply in particular to the penalties provided for pensioners who work when: (a) they do not declare their employment to the EFFA, and (b) they declare employment but do not pay the prescribed insurance contributions.
In the first case (undeclared employment) 12 pensions are returned with 25% of the pension withheld, while in the second (uninsurable employment) the full pension is withheld until the contributions due are paid.
With the new provision retention will be 10% of pension in both cases.
Without retroactive effect
The search for unduly paid benefits with a withholding of 10% of the pension granted will not have retroactive effect, as indicated by a competent source at Capital.gr, meaning that those who have greater reservations than the pension for benefits received without entitlement will continue with the same reservations and will not fall to 10% for the remaining amount.
The provision provides in detail the following: "Contributions, from any cause, unduly paid by the legal person governed by public law under the name "Electronic National Social Security Institution" (e-E. F.C.A.) are withheld by decision of the e-E.F.C.A. from the amounts of pensions to be paid in the coming months, in equal monthly instalments, until their full termination. The percentage of the monthly deduction is one tenth (1/10) of the amount of the monthly pension, as set out after legal bookings and cannot be less than 50 euros. In the event of a financial provision being granted retroactively, the debt shall be set off against it and any balance shall be deducted from 1/10. If the payment of any pension is discontinued, for any reason, before the full repayment of the unduly paid amount, the balance shall be collected in accordance with the provisions of the Public Revenue Recovery Code."
Παρεμφερής με την μείωση της παρακράτησης είναι και η διάταξη που προβλέπεται στο νομοσχέδιο του υπουργείου Εθνικής Οικονομίας για τα μέτρα στήριξης και προβλέπει ότι δεν θα αναζητούνται από τους συνταξιούχους ποσά που καταβλήθηκαν αχρεωστήτως λόγω λαθών των υπηρεσιών κατά τη μηχανογραφική εκκαθάριση αναδρομικών ή κατά τον επανυπολογισμό των συντάξεων.
