Elderly Greeks face slashed pensions
希臘老年人面臨養老金削減

Pension reform has always been one of the major sticking points between Greece and its creditors. Some pensions have already been cut by as much as 48 percent in the last five years. The Greek government says close to half of Greek pensioners receive monthly payments below the poverty line.

Niki worked in kitchen restaurants all her life. A widow with five children, she had a good retirement until the crisis began. At 64, she lost all her pension benefits and now cares for one of her daughters and her grandchildren.

"Living on 600 euros a month It's not even enough to pay your bills. Or to help your children. My daughter is without a job for two years," Niki said.

Giannis worked for almost four decades as a public bus driver. His pension is an exception - over 1,000 euros but with a monthly mortgage to pay, that leaves him with 700 euros to live on.

"It's a big mistake taking money away from pensioners, they cut 700 euros from my pension. I turned in my car plates, and I had a small car, because I couldn't afford it," Giannis said.

Three out of four pensioners get less than 1,000 euros per month. The average, Greek pension is close to 840 euros. Greece's lenders insist that pensions in the country remain too high compared to the rest of Europe.

Few people here believe that further pension cuts will achieve anything. Moreover, they may also be illegal as Greece's highest court has already ruled that private sector pension cuts in 2012 were unlawful.

According to government data, Greece spends 16 percent of its output on pension funds. Many agree that the pension system needs to be reformed. According to experts, further cuts would be the final blow to pensioners, a possibility back-firing before even being considered.

"In the last few days, we see a big wave of pension applications in an effort from Greeks to protect themselves from new, painful changes in pension funds. This acts against the system because pension expenditure swells. Many people coming to our office, tell us that we don't want to retire but we are afraid that we'll be trapped by any new changes and we leave our jobs sooner than we would have wanted," Dimitris Bourlos, attorney specializing in Pension Fund Legislation said.

Greece has said it wants to curb early retirement benefits and raise retirement age from 61 to 67 years old. But in the country with the highest unemployment in Europe and a rapidly ageing population, it will take a lot more to make the pension system more effective.