No blanket cuts to supplementary pensions, Koutroumanis says

The labour ministry has no plans for blanket ‘horizontal’ cuts in supplementary pensions, Alternate Labour and Social Insurance Minister George Koutroumanis said while briefing the appropriate Parliamentary committee on Wednesday. The minister confirmed that supplementary pensions will be reviewed, however, and that those that were unsustainable over the course of the next five years would be reduced.

Noting that some pension funds paid out high supplementary pensions, Koutroumanis said that this would not be a problem if the funds were able to cover the sums involved. In cases where it was apparent that the funds would run into trouble in the next five years, however, the size of pensions would be adjusted downward within 2012.

“Adjustments will not be needed everywhere, but where they are needed they will be made,” he stressed.