# Record of retirement claims in the first quarter of 2026
A total of 58,213 new retirement applications were filed in January–March 2026, according to e-EFKA data, scoring a record from 2017. Professor Alexis Mitropoulos, President of the Union for the Protection of Labour and the Social State, points to an increase of 10,172 applications compared to 2025. The main factors of the output are fear of increasing age limits from 1-1-2027 through «Prosecution clause», changes in the acquisition of fictitious time and the calculation of a pension based on the whole working life.
Analyticalally:
2026 would be a record year for retirement applications warned in time analysts from January, based on the first indications. The figures in the first quarter confirm the forecasts with the above. As it appears from the «Monthly Visualization of Master Pensions», the e-EFCA information system «Atlas», cumulatively in January-March 2026 58,213 new retirement claims were lodged.
This is by far the largest number of applications ever lodged at a corresponding time period, at least since 2017 when the EPCA was established. Professor Alexis Mitropoulos, President of the Union for the Protection of Labour and the Social State, points out in a new analysis.
Increase trend
The new record in pension applications continues and increases the current of the long-running of pension workers. Compared to the first quarter of 2025, 10,172 more applications were submitted this year. If the growth trend follows the same pace, by the end of 2026 more than 260,000 applications may have been lodged.
It is recalled that 225,803 pension applications were filed in 2025, which was also the largest in the EPCA's chronicles.
What pushes insured persons into retirement
According to a scientific analysis by the ENPEC, five are the main factors that prompt pensioners:
First and foremost, the fear of increasing age limits from 1-1-2027 through activation of so-called «Prosecution clause», originally introduced by Memorandum Law 3863/2010. It was subsequently re-established with the third memorandum (n. 4336/2015) and the Katrougalos Act (n. 4387/2016). This is the clause linking the increase in life expectancy to the increase in retirement limits.
In late 2025, Deputy Labour Minister Anna Efthymiou tried to reassure the insured persons that «In the present circumstances there is no case of an increase in retirement limits in 2027». But her assurances were not capable of halting the exit wave. After all, the latest study by the National Accounting Authority indicates for our country the possibility that the institutionalised retirement age will increase to 67.5 years from the 62 years it is today – with 40 years of insurance.
Changes in the acquisition of fictitious time
The second factor that pushes insured people to the pension door is the fear of changing for the worst Fake time acquisition framework (recognition of studies, army, child rearing, etc.). The current institutional framework allows for the acquisition of 5 to 7 years, compared with an amount corresponding to 20% of the salary of the month applied for (multipled over the number of months of acquisition). This is a framework that almost seven out of ten insured persons use.
The increase in basic salary brings up the thresholds for the acquisition of fictitious insurance time, both for public and private employees and for freelancers.
Change in the calculation of pension earnings
The third factor that increases the armies of prospective pensioners, according to the ENPECK, is the change in the amount of cash in the calculation of pension contributions from 1-1-2025 – and by extension from 1/1/2026.
The fourth factor is the calculation of the pension based on earnings of the entire working life. It is recalled that before the third memorandum, pensions were calculated on the basis of the best five years of the last decade. By weighting wages during the crisis, new pensions are expected to be much lower.
Fifth factor is the most favourable post-retirement employment conditions, as today more than 300,000 pensioners remain active in the labour market.
«Greece already has the highest limits in Europe»
Mr. Mitropoulos strongly emphasises that any further increase in age limits is unjustified. It reminds me that insurance «reform» of 2015 raised our country to first place ranking among countries with the highest general retirement age limits in Europe of 47 Member States, while no other EU country currently applies a general limit of 67 years or 62 years with 40 years of insurance.
According to the latest figures March 2026 by HYKA/SUN, 81,78% of pensioners – i.e. over 2 million people – are over 65 years old, which makes Greece a country with older pensioners throughout the EU.
The President of the EMIEK calls on the government to give immediate and clear answers to two crucial issues: the future of the takeover of fictitious years and the retirement age limits from 2027 onwards. The uncertainty that prevails feeds the wave of early departures, with the risk that both the insurance system and the labour market will be irreparably burdened.
