TIF: The 6 support measures for low-income earners and pensioners

Relief measures for wage earners and pensioners affected by galloping accuracy are included in the TIF package, which remains open to last-minute additions.

The main measures to support households include:

1. Increases in pensions

An increase of close to 7%, due to the spike in inflation, will be given to pensions in 2023. The latest calculations by the NFKA show that 2/3 of current pensioners, i.e. about 1.5 million, will receive hot money in their pockets.

The remaining 1/3, about 850,000, will see only accounting increases or very small, marginal increases, as they maintain a large personal difference.

The «golden» category of pensioners, which will be doubly or even triply strengthened, is:

• 900,000 pensioners who, apart from the increases, will benefit from the abolition of the solidarity contribution,
• 150,000 old pensioners who will receive the 4th instalment of the recalculation increase to which they are entitled as they have been insured for more than 30 years.

Recall that the rate of increase is obtained by the formula that adds the price index and the increase in GDP, dividing the total by two.

Annual inflation, which is estimated to reach - if not exceed - 10%, is «closed» in mid-January, while the growth rate will be finalised in early March.

Therefore the rate of increase will be «locked in» at the end of the first quarter. This means that the most likely date of payment of the increases retroactively from 1/1/2023 will be at the end of March with the April pensions.

2. Abolition of the solidarity levy

Approximately 1 million pensioners, according to the data of the Greek Tax Agency, will benefit from the abolition of the solidarity contribution withheld each month at rates of 2.2% to 10% from all monthly pension amounts exceeding 1,000 euros (annual income over 12,000 euros).

These pensioners will see an increase in their annual net income from €70 to €1,600. In fact, 900,000 of them will also see hot money in their pockets from the 2023 increases.

3. Payment of 4th instalment for replenishment rates

An additional increase in 2023 will be given to 150,000 old pensioners with more than 30 years of insurance who have zeroed the personal difference and are entitled to receive the 4th installment of the recalculation increase, due to the Vroutsis law.

4. New accuracy check

Payment at Christmas of a new precision cheque or food pass low pensioners and the vulnerable.

The amount of the aid is estimated to be more than EUR 200. The beneficiaries will be:

• Low pensioners
• Beneficiaries of the Minimum Guaranteed Income
• People with disabilities
• Married couples with children and single-parent families with low incomes.

The Minister of Labor, Kostis Hatzidakis, left open the possibility of granting a special allowance for low pensioners, saying that such a measure would be decided at the end of the year depending on developments in electricity prices, the war and the budgetary margin.

5. Minimum wage increase

At least EUR 751 (from 713 euros) - i.e. the pre-memorandum level after 10 years - the minimum wage in the private sector is planned to reach in 2023. The nearly 650,000 workers paid at the minimum wage will gain almost one extra salary per year.

With the basic salary currently at €713, the increase to €751 equals an extra €518 per year (14 salaries times €37 increase). The new increase in the minimum wage will entail a series of upward benefits, first and foremost the unemployment benefit, which will rise from 407.25 euros to 461.82 euros.

The new increased salary is expected to come into force in the first months of 2023 and at the latest on May Day.

6. Housing programme

The new housing programme will be worth €1.5 billion and will provide for the allocation of interest-free loans for the purchase or repair of a first home and rent subsidies to broader groups of citizens -and not only to those receiving the Minimum Guaranteed Income - with a focus on young couples.

It will then seek to create a pool of properties that could be rented out to young workers and unemployed people at low rents, so that over a period of years they can gradually acquire their own property (rent-to-own).