Important progress has recently been made in the field of Social Security after the continuous, endless reduction in pensions imposed by the government.
The State, and in particular the leadership of the relevant Ministry of Labor, recognizing the unjustified and illegal way of withholding health care contributions, has made the decision to reimburse the pensioners of all social security institutions with back payments resulting from the improper and illegal acquisition of the contributions in the health sector.
Specifically, on 22.11.2017 the Law 4501/2017 (Government Gazette A '178 / 22.11.2017) “Distribution of Social Dividends and other Provisions" was published in Article 2 of which "Refund of Health Care Reserves" provides that “Amounts withheld for the monthly contribution for the health care of pensioners during the period 1.1.2012 to 30.6.2016 which were calculated on the gross amount of a monthly main pension or pre-retirement benefit, without deducting the amounts corresponding to the pension cuts under Laws 4024/2011 (A 226), 4051/2 012 (Α '40) and 4093/2012 (Α' 222) and Joint Ministerial Decision 476/2012 (Β '499) are returned to the beneficiaries. The refund will be paid by December 2017.”
Also legal claims should be made regarding the amount of back payment contributions that pensioners will receive in cases where the amounts of back payment payments do not correspond to the actual withholding of pension payments.
Our law firm has already filed lawsuits both for the unlawful method of withholding health benefit payments and for the increase from 4% to 6% for main pensions, and for the imposition of a 6% health benefit payment, also, for supplementary pensions. We believe that there is a great chance of success with regards this judicial struggle.
