Greek Minister of Employment and Social Protection Antonis Roupakiotis met with Rovertos Spyropoulos, General Director of IKA – Greece’s largest state social-security fund for employees in order to find a solution concerning pensions needed for June-July 2012.
Greece’s recession led to non-payments, or delays in payment, of contributions to IKA’s funding. As a consequence, IKA fund received decreased contributions by 14 percent and OAEE fund – the Greek fund for self-employed people – by about 20 percent in the first four months of 2012.
Another driver to this negative result is the fact that the country has to deal with repeat elections besides the financial crisis. And as it is typical in Greece, bureaucracy “takes a break,” inofficially, during the pre-election period. This means that, even if they had money, the pensions would hardly get paid on time.
Not including other Greek funds, these will need a 300-million-state subsidy to pay pensions for June and July 2012.
Both sides are trying to find the best solution to avoid paying only part of the pensions on June 22 or paying the whole sum late. IKA’s and OAEE’s employees have already asked for their debtors to pay off their debts to the funds.
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