Still paying out unknown amounts in pensions to fraudulent claimants and even to the dead whose families haven’t reported the deaths, Greece has recovered 13.6 million euros ($17.6 million) in false pension claims, government officials said, and that there is at least another 10 million euros ($13 million) that has been wrongly claimed and still being paid.
No one is being prosecuted for defrauding the government, which had previously said it would ask for the money to be returned. The data was revealed in a written answer by Alternate Finance Minister Christos Staikouras to a parliamentary question from independent MP Nikos Nikolopoulos, the news agency ANA reported. Staikouras said the authorities were continuing their efforts to get the rest of the money but didn’t say how.
The controls focused on finding cases where people claiming pensions for relatives who died. It also checked on the current marital status of widows, as well as on unmarried daughters of civil servants who are entitled to their dead parents’ pensions until they marry.
The document also stated that in the most recent census of publish-sector pensioners, 2,277 recipients (out of a total of 429,823) had failed to register. Of these, 1,018 were listed as retired farmers or wartime resistance veterans. Pension payments to those who failed to register was suspended last October.
When unlawful pension payments are identified, recipients are given one month to repay the money. If they fail to return the money, the sum is added to their tax liability. Money can also be reclaimed from those with joint bank accounts with the pension beneficiaries as well as relatives.
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