Improving changes to widow's pensions - What does a new circular provide?

The retrospective grant of the new threshold for widow's pensions provides for a circular signed by the Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Insurance Anastasios Petropoulos.

The circular provides for the retroactive grant of the new minimum retirement age (384 euros for 20 years of insurance, reduced by 1.25% for each year less up to 360 euros for 15 years) to both the surviving spouse and / or divorced spouse and to the children of franchisees.

According to the circular and the relevant law 4499/2017, the improvement interventions in the grant scheme and the minimum pension amounts are applicable to pensioners due to deaths that have occurred since 13/05/2016 and thereafter.

The minimum amount of a death pension is defined as the full amount of the national pension under Article 7 of L.4387 / 206 for 20 years of insurance ie € 384.00.

If the deceased had less than 20 years of insurance, the amount of € 384.00 is reduced by 1.25% for each year below 20 years and up to 15 years of insurance. If the life of the deceased is less than 15 years, the minimum amount is 360 € corresponding to 15 years of insurance. . Therefore, the minimum amount of pension due to death depending on the insurance time is as follows:

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• Up to 15 years of insurance: 360 euros
• For 16 years of insurance: EUR 364.80
• For 17 years of insurance: 369,60 euros
• For 18 years of insurance: 374,40 euros
• For 19 years of insurance: 379.20 euros
• For 20 years of insurance and more: EUR 384,00

In order to find the insurance period to which the minimum amount is linked, only the full year of the deceased was taken into account.

For example, if the deceased had 17 years and 4 months of insurance, the minimum amount is equal to 17 years of insurance (369.60 €)

Also, as stated in the circular:

• The surviving spouse continues to receive the death pension for as long as the child is entitled to a death pension.

• The circle of child-raising pensioners also includes children who have been discontinued at the age of 18 and who have been admitted to a higher or higher school or enrolled in an IEK after the death of the parent and the age limit. The above children are entitled to a higher or higher school or IEK pension due to death, which is paid up to the end of their studies with a higher end date as of the completion of the 24th year (if the studies are not completed before the above age limit).

• The beneficiaries of the death pension include the children who lost their parents during the year of preparation for admission to the upper or upper school, regardless of the successful or unsuccessful completion of the examinations. It should be noted that this also applies to the years following the third academic year in which the child participates, successfully or not, in admission examinations at a higher or higher school. Therefore, a condition for receiving a pension is that death occurs within the year of preparation for Panhellenic examinations. The preparation for the examinations is certified by the participation in them and a death pension is granted after the age of 18 and up to the age of 24.

• An independent threshold is granted to each child who has lost both parents if he / she does not receive a pension from the other parent. The grant of the threshold of the notified provisions to the surviving spouse and / or divorced spouse and to the surviving spouse excludes the survivors of a death pension due to an accident at work or an occupational disease - where the special provisions apply.

• If there are two child-bearing children and a child-licensee, an orphan of both parents, then two children are granted a lower limit on death and the orphan and two-parent child also a lower limit on death. In the latter case, the granting of an individual minimum retirement pension to the orphan's child by both parents is conditional on the fact that he does not receive or is not entitled to a pension by the other parent. It is understood that the amount of the threshold is proportional to the deceased's life. In the case of two children of orphans, both parents are granted to each of them, according to the express provision in the last subparagraph, an autonomous minimum amount similar to the years of the deceased parent's insurance.

Example

The EFCA-OAEE pensioner dies on 15/7/2016 after the Panhellenic exam in 2016 and the adult child for 19 years will participate in the Panhellenic examinations of 2017. The year of preparation of the particular child for the Pan-Hellenic exam starts at 1.7. 2016 to 30.6.2017. Death has therefore taken place in the year of preparation, and when the child's participation certificate is issued in the 2017 Pan-Hellenic Examinations, he will be entitled to the death of EFCA-OAEE with retrospective - in accordance with the legislation of the former OAEE - from 1/8/2016 1st of the following month from the date of death) if the period between the submission of the application for retirement and the submission of the relevant certificate does not exceed one year.