ATHENS – [ANA-MPA]
The government’s economic team is making coordinated moves to reduce the state’s overdue debts to private individuals, in order to ensure the uninterrupted continuation of their de-escalation, which began in December with a 500 million euros drop.
In December, the State’s overdue liabilities (including pending tax refunds) recorded a significant decline to 3.221 billion euros from 3.782 billion euros the previous month, November. Excluding pending tax refunds, State arrears in December 2025 amounted to 2.499 billion euros compared to 3.016 billion euros in November 2025.
This marks a significant reversal after several months of increases. The turnaround was the result of the immediate mobilization of the Ministry of Finance and its warnings to public sector entities that they would face consequences — including the publication of their names — if they did not accelerate the repayment of their overdue debts to the private sector. A committee established by the Ministry of Finance will address the issue, aiming to identify the causes of delays in reducing overdue liabilities of public bodies.
Another step in this direction is the Special Working Group being formed by EFKA (the Social Security Fund) to speed up the granting of lump-sum payments to public sector retirees. Although the number of pending lump-sum payments to civil servants has been significantly reduced in recent years, around 1,000 cases remain unresolved due to their increased level of complexity.
The goal is for the Special Working Group to clear these cases as quickly as possible. The group will begin its work on March 1, 2026, and complete it by December 31, 2026. As for pending applications for main pensions, the situation is as follows: in November, their number stood at 14,430, of which approximately 5,500 concern self-employed professionals and farmers. These are self-employed individuals with debts to EFKA of up to 30,000 euros and farmers with debts of up to 10,000 euros. It is noted that for both categories of debtors, a prerequisite for submitting a retirement application is the settlement of the debt in up to 60 monthly installments.
