Around half of Greece’s households were forced to survive with less than €800 per month in 2012, as revealed by recent Greek tax office numbers.
According to the data published by the Greek newspaper “Kathimerini,” 2,751,856 taxpayers with their spouses and their dependents declared annual incomes of less than €9,500 in last year’s tax returns. Of those families, around one in three own real estate with a value of less than €100,000, while 600,000 households maintain real estate with a value between €100,000 and €150,000, but have an income of less than €9,500.
Compared to last year’s numbers, families with an annual income of less than €9,000 increased within 12 months by 207,743. In 2012, 2,339,670 families declared an annual income below the €9,000 threshold, while in 2013 the number increased to 2,547,413.
These numbers are now being examined by the parliamentary committee which is to decide on the distribution of the social benefit package of €450 million, the criteria for which will be decided along with the Greek Manpower Employment Organization (OAED). Upon searching among poor and also long-term unemployed people, the committee found that only 200,000 long-term unemployed Greeks declared an annual income of less than €5,000, thus, revealing that the processing of statistical data is unable to form social policy without great injustices taking place.
As a result, the committee is trying to find several alternatives that won’t cause more harm than good, as a simple horizontal income and assets criteria for all social beneficiaries won’t be effective. One of the proposed solutions also sees more specific criteria being employed and dividing the beneficiaries in categories (long-term unemployed, elderly, people with restricted mobility), as well as changing the income criteria between each separate category.
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