Self-employed having trouble paying fund contributions

Some 40 percent of Greece’s self-employed workforce are unable to pay their social security contributions to their pension and healthcare fund, OAEE, the secretary of the organization’s workers, Antonis Kourkoulis, told Skai television on Tuesday.

Kourkoulis noted that the fund is having trouble collecting contributions from its members as the Greek recession enters its fifth year.

He also noted that there are some 3,000 pensioners at OAEE who have failed to produce a tax identification (AFM) and social security number (AMKA), adding that unless they show up at their local OAEE branch by November 19 with this information they will not receive their pensions for December.

Kourkoulis also said that the fund’s pensioner census — being compiled to root out people making false claims — will be completed by December 31 and that all members have until then to register in person at the bank or post office where they receive their pensions.

Registering is compulsory for members wishing to continue receiving pensions from 2013. Members must produce a police identity card or valid passport (for non-Greeks), a statement of pension payments received in the third quarter of 2012, their last tax declaration return form (or a certificate from their tax office that they have paid their value-added tax), as well as any document displaying their social security number (AMKA).

Pensioners unable to appear for registration in person must send a representative with a power of attorney or police-stamped authorization.

Source: ekathimerini.com