By S. Papapetros
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The average gross monthly pension payment in Greece is 772.03 euros, with the average supplementary monthly stipend – for beneficiaries that receive such a benefit – at 170.93 euros, labor ministry figures revealed.
The figures were released on Sunday and are related to social security statistics related to December 2016.
The overall social security outlay for the specific month reached 2.342 billion euros, with beneficiaries exceeding 4.554 million people, out of a total population of 11 million in the country. Of the latter, 2.892 million beneficiaries receive primary pensions; the rest, 1.252 million, are supplementary, while slightly more than 409,000 beneficiaries receiving dividends from the civil servants’ fund.
The release of the all-important social security figures — itself a memorandum-mandated provision — was resumed after 20 months, with the last such publication coming in July 2015.
Another statistic shows that of the social security benefits allocated, 1.241 million pensioners receive only one monthly benefit; 965.051 beneficiaries receive two pensions, while 340,850 beneficiaries receive three pensions. At the higher end of the spectrum, a small group of pensioners in the country receive seven pensions.
The latest figures include the figure for taxes taken from social security and health care contributions.
Moreover, 24 percent of pensioners in the country are over the age of 81; 31 percent are between the ages of 71 and 80; 39 percent of pensioners in the country are between the ages of 51 and 70, while only 1 percent of beneficiaries are under the age of 25 – practically all receiving disability payments.
On average, pensioners between the ages of 56 and 65 receive the highest monthly pension rates.
