Griekenland
Old-age pension
The basic mechanism for coverage of the risk of old age in Greece consists of main pension benefits deriving from employment activity and the prior payment of contributions. The conditions for the award of benefits are based on completion of a specific period of insurance and on the attainment of specific age thresholds which vary according to the provisions in each case. Persons having over 10 000 days of insurance are entitled to a full pension on completion of their 62nd year in the case of men and on completion of their 57th year in the case of women. Persons over 58 may also receive a full pension provided that they have completed 10 500 days of insurance. Persons engaged in heavy and unhealthy occupations become eligible for the pension at a lower age.
Insured persons who complete 4 500 or 10 000 days of insurance establish a right to a reduced (early) pension at the age of 60 (men) and 55 (women). The reduction is 1/267 for each month by which the person falls short of the age required for the award of a full pension.
Special, more favourable, pension conditions apply to mothers of minors and of children who are incapable of work. Those conditions provide special insurance protection for motherhood. Those women establish the right to a full pension at the age of 55 and have 5 500 days of insurance and the right to a reduced pension at the age of 50.
The calculation of the pension amount takes account of the notional day wage of the insurance class to which the insured person belongs on the basis of the quotient of the division of the total earnings (not counting Christmas and Easter gifts and the leave allowance) received in the five calendar years which the person selects from the last 10 years before the year of submission of the pension application by the number of working days in the same five years. The monthly old-age pension is made up of the basic pension and various increments.
Survivor’s pension.
When an IKA insured person or pensioner dies, the following family members are entitled to a survivor’s pension:
the person’s children, provided that they are unmarried, not in receipt of a pension and under 18 years of age, or under 24 years of age if a student, not working or not receiving a pension from their own work or from the State, or are orphaned from both parents, or were supported by the deceased parent if that parent had been abandoned by the other parent. Children who are unfit for any gainful employment and whose unfitness began before they reached 18 years of age are entitled to a survivor’s pension for as long as the unfitness continues regardless of the age ceiling;
grandchildren and stepchildren who are orphaned from their parents and were supported by the deceased;
parents (natural and adoptive), if they were supported principally by the deceased.
Disability pensions
The cause of disability can be an ordinary disease, an accident at work, an occupational disease or an accident outside work. The following conditions apply:
the insured person must not be receiving an old-age or invalidity pension from the State or from a legal entity governed by public law or from another main insurance body (except OGA);
the insured person must have been judged by health committees of the Social Insurance Institute to have a pensionable percentage of disability (50% or over) and must have been insured with IKA-ETAM for the minimum required time.
