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The new government measures will affect the following groups of insured persons: mothers of minor children in preretirement age, persons insured before 1983 and eligible for retirement at 35 years of service with no age limit, and the employees to whom the special security schemes in state enterprises and banks apply.

Those are about 400,000 employees who, according to the existing insurance and pension system, have a guaranteed right to retirement before the age of 62 years. It is expected that the retirement age for these categories will be increased, the increase starting from 5 and reaching up to 15 years of additional experience.

According to the initial information, as the measures have not yet been finally clarified, it is expected that the new retirement requirements will affect the following categories of insured persons:

1. Civil servants who, in 2011-2012, reached 25 years of service in the public sector. During this two-year period, retirement conditions were favourable as the reduced age for women applied to men as well.

2. Mothers of minor children who, by the end of 2012, had secured themselves the right of retiring which applies in the presence of the years of service required and in the existence of a minor child. Subsequently, those mothers can continue working with the option of retiring at the age required in each individual case (the age varies from 50 to 60 years).

3. Persons insured in the public sector and in the insurance funds of state enterprises and banks by the end of 1982. A number of ordinances allow those persons to retire regardless of their age (even at twenty-four and a half years of service for women and at thirty-five years of service for men).

4. Persons insured from 1983 to 1992 and having thirty-five years of service by the end of 2012. Those persons are allowed to retire at the age of 58 to 60 years (depending on the fund and year of eligibility).

5. Employees in hard and unhealthy occupations. Before reaching the age of 60 years those persons who, by the end of 2012, had at least 10,500 days of service of which 7,500 days in a hard occupation, can qualify for retirement.

6. Those insured at the National Insurance Institute IKA and having 4,500 days of service by the end of 2012 and 60 years of age (for women the retirement age is reduced to 55 years).

7. Women insured at the National Insurance Institute IKA and having 10,000 days of service by the end of 2012. The age for a full pension varies from 62 to 63.5 years (it is 60 for a reduced pension).

At the same time, the Minister of Labour and Social Policy Yiannis Vroutsis has stated that the retirement age, which is in force today, will not be changed.

The Minister points out that, after 31 December 2013, the recognition of the conditional years will not be extended.

Yiannis Vroutsis also states that the pensions in the so-called "noble" insurance funds will not be cut despite the government's commitment to reduce non-wage costs to the levels of the National Insurance Institute IKA. "The alignment will be difficult but I will use every opportunity in order for the pensioners in this category not to suffer."

The Minister also says that the one-off payment to civil servants at retirement will be reduced, noting that he is unable to accurately determine the percentage of the reduction.

The Social Minister states that the bill which he will submit to parliament on Tuesday will provide resources to the amount of 500 million euro, which will fill the hole in the 2014 budget. Of these, 100 million will be provided by the detailed periodic declarations of employers, which will come into force on 1 December 2013.

80 million euro will be provided by combating tax crimes, i.e. from taxes paid in favour of the state, which will belong to the social ministry.

The centre controlling the collection of contributions will provide 150 million euro. The Minister notes that a company collecting instalments, which belongs to a bank owing the state 7.5 million euro, has been detected. Cross-electronic information will provide another 150 million euro.

Furthermore, Yiannis Vroutsis states that bank accounts of individuals who owe contributions will not be assigned.