According to the Helios figures cited by the network, the average main pension in September was €845.22. New pensions, largely for former private-sector employees, were smaller still, averaging €770.23. By contrast, newly awarded main pensions for former public-sector employees averaged €1,359.55, a gap of €589.32. The network said high unemployment and low wages over the past 15 years had depressed private-sector pensions and widened the public–private divide in retirement incomes.
e-EFKA reported that 1,402,841 beneficiaries received the government’s €250 allowance. Given that registered pensioners were 2,517,412 in September, the payment reached 55.72% of pensioners, leaving 1,114,571 pensioners excluded. Eligibility criteria included annual income thresholds (€14,000 for single pensioners and €26,000 for couples), declared asset limits (€200,000 for singles and €300,000 for couples) and an age requirement of 65 or over.
The Helios data show a steady rise in pension numbers. In September the total was 2,517,412, an increase of 3,124 on August and 20,292 on September 2024. Of the 1,932,225 pensioners receiving at least one main old-age pension, 1,029,478 (53.27%) were men. Death pensions were heavily concentrated among women, with 348,144 of 382,773 recipients (90.95%) female. Of the 174,811 pensioners receiving disability pensions, 105,763 (60.50%) were men.
Age bands cluster in the late sixties and seventies. The largest cohort, 475,147 pensioners (18.9%), were aged 71–75, followed by 464,026 (18.4%) aged 66–70 and 429,127 (17.1%) aged 76–80. More than half of pensioners (54.4%, or 1,368,300 people) are between 66 and 80. The highest average pension, €1,131.02, was recorded among those aged 61–65, a group of 286,171 beneficiaries.
In September, 4,708,355 individual pensions were paid: 2,883,438 main pensions, 1,386,281 supplementary pensions and 438,636 dividends. The average supplementary pension was €196.45, effectively unchanged from August. Dividend payments averaged €113.72 in September.
A total of 28,618 new pensions were awarded in September, costing €16,990,283. e-EFKA also made retroactive payments on those awards totalling €89,926,697, highlighting persistent delays in processing. Of the new awards, 17,438 (60.93%) were main pensions for former private-sector employees, whose average main pension was €770.23.
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