Deputy Labor Minister creates confusion about raising the retirement age

The Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Security of Greece Panos Tsakloglou, out of the blue, created a panic with his statement about raising the retirement age, and then began to give one explanation after another, which further confused the public.

Currently, the retirement age is 67 years or after 40 years of work experience, with exceptions for certain groups of the population. Speaking on Mega TV on Sunday, Greek Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Security Panos Tsakloglou assured his audience that there would be no changes to the minimum retirement age in the next three years.

He noted that the law setting the minimum age for receiving a state pension (67 years old) dates back to 2010 and links the limits of retirement age to life expectancy, and this process is reviewed every three years.

Trying to explain the situation, he ended up complicating the situation even further: “We have special laws that spell out how retirement thresholds change, and what they say. They say, for example, that every three years we look at what happened over the previous period, whether the average life expectancy has changed upward, not the total life expectancy, but the average life expectancy of 65 years, because what the insurance system practically cares about is how many pensions it should give out in the coming years so that we don’t run into big deficits, etc. And it adapts that way. And I already said that what happened was that if in 2010, when this law was passed – it has been respected by all governments since 2010 – before the coronavirus we had a slight improvement, then after the coronavirus we had a setback. The life expectancy limit of 65 years has not changed significantly, and it is for this reason that there will be no changes to pension restrictions in the next three years.”he said among other things.

The Deputy Minister added that in other countries where a similar system exists, “It doesn’t change that dramatically, within three years the average life expectancy increases by two years to 65 years. The changes are small. So, let’s say if it increases by a quarter, then what they care about and what they do there is, that they don’t even put this quarter that sharply. Although since it’s a mess, they put a month in the first year, and another month in the next year, and another month in the year after, so that overall everything will be smooth.”

Ultimately, in a series of interviews, Tsakloglou said, “Obviously, no one can know what will happen in 2027.” Why did he raise this question if there is nothing certain in 2023? Here either the deputy minister simply blurted out what came into his head (and this is a common thing for many Greek ministers), or he let slip about the authorities’ plans to raise the retirement age. Judging by the comments on social networks, it’s more likely the latter…

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