A trio of top Cabinet ministers was meeting on Tuesday to examine the issue of more than a dozen mostly non-essential bonuses and welfare stipends allocated by the state, benefits that earned the World Bank’s recent recommendation for elimination or radical cut backs.
The issue of the 15 benefits was first reported by “N” last week.
Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos was chairing the meeting, which was also attended by Labor and Social Securities Minister Giorgos Katrougalos and alternate minister Theano Fotiou.
The World Bank report on Greece recommended a radical, by Greek standards, reduction in specific benefits.
The 75-page report was concluded last April and subsequently presented to Greece’s labor ministry.
According to the basic points in the report, which were first reported by “N”, proposed cuts include a heating fuel subsidy for low-income households; vacation coupons for the unemployed; the employment bureau (OAED) summer camp program; the same agency’s Funding for Union Organizations program; OAED’s subsidized tourism program; free inter-city travel passes for eligible families; a vacation subsidy for eligible beneficiaries and employed beneficiaries of the ETAP-MME fund (which provides primary social security benefits to media sector employees) ; vacation subsidies for public sector pensioners; another ‘social tourism’ program lasting six days via coupons; another holiday subsidy program for senior citizens; vacation subsidies for people with disabilities; family bonus and marital status bonuses, and finally, subsidies for first-time hirings.
