The advance payment of a minimum amount to beneficiaries of benefits and pensions, the operation of a special framework for sickness benefits linked to coronavirus, in order to decongest the system, simplifying procedures, strengthening the service with staff, operating an efficient call centre and improving the process of sending-confirming receipt of applications are some of the recommendations put to the Parliamentary Labour Committee to address the delay in the payment of benefits and pensions by the Social Insurance Institution.
The Committee discussed the problem faced by beneficiaries who have not received Social Security Fund benefits and pensions for months and focused on the need to take measures to address it.
Committee President and AKEL MP Andreas Kavkalias, in statements after the Committee's meeting, said that this delay leads thousands of citizens to "financial suffocation", whether they are unemployed, sick people, young mothers or pensioners.
He referred to the recommendations discussed, which include advance payment of a minimum amount to beneficiaries of benefits and pensions, operation of a special framework for benefits linked to the coronavirus, simplification of procedures, reinforcement of the service with staff, at least on a temporary basis, operation of an efficient call centre and improvement of the procedure for sending confirmation of receipt of applications.
In response to a question about the causes of the delays, he said that "the government attributes the delays to the increased volume of applications due to the pandemic, but also to the addition of new benefits, which were recently introduced", but, he said, "when people are driven to economic misery, these excuses do not count". He concluded, "the government must change its reflexes to effectively address the problem and respond to a need in society."
DISY MP Onoufrios Koulla, in statements after the meeting, said that this problem is timeless and has grown because of the circumstances created by the pandemic, but also because of the addition of new social measures. He argued that the solution to the problem is not to return the process to the shorter delay it had before the pandemic, but to modernise and automate systems in order to pay benefits in a much shorter time.
In response to a question on whether the introduction of new social measures takes into account the process of their practical implementation, he said that "many times we all want to apply a new support measure to citizens without having fully taken care of how to implement it or the administrative He concluded by saying that by taking action in the areas of modernization, the Ministry of State will be able to help solve the problem with the payment of benefits.
Source: CNA
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