The EFKA aims to issue pensions within 30 days; the digital EFKA (OPS), which is expected to be fully operational by the end of the summer, as well as the digitization of the “paper kingdom” of 53 million insurance documents.
Currently, the average processing time is 42 days, while in complex cases involving consecutive insurance coverage, it can take up to six months. The goal is to limit even these significant delays to a maximum of two months, with the focus primarily on improving the processing times for supplementary pensions.
The countdown to the EFKA’s transition to the new digital era has begun, with the agency’s management now setting a realistic goal of issuing primary pensions in a much shorter timeframe than currently exists.
This ambitious undertaking is based on two parallel projects: the new Integrated Information System (IIS) and the digitization of insurance records, which are radically changing the way social security operates and gradually reducing the long delays that have plagued insured individuals and services for years.
Moreover, today, the average time for granting a primary pension has improved significantly compared to the past, when pending applications could take as long as two years. However, the situation is not uniform across all funds and all categories of insured persons.
The greatest difficulties continue to arise in cases of consecutive and parallel insurance, as this requires cross-checking data from different former funds and systems, some of which, even today, do not “communicate” effectively with one another. In these cases, waiting times can still reach up to 6 months, while in certain complex cases they may be even longer.
Yesterday, EFKA Director Alexandros Varveris, in the presence of Labor Minister Niki Kerameos, presented the progress of the projects “New e-EFKA Information System” and “Digitization of Insurance History,” through which delays in pension disbursements are expected to be drastically reduced, while the management of contributions and insurance periods will be improved and audit mechanisms strengthened, through a unified digital environment that will link all social security functions.
Once these two key projects are fully operational, it is estimated that even complex cases will be able to be resolved within two months. This is because the new information system consolidates more than 180 fragmented databases and creates a unified digital environment where insurance, contribution, employment, and pension history data will be aggregated in real time.
At the same time, it will interoperate with the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (AADE), the General Commercial Registry (GEMI), the Civil Registry, ERGANI II, and other public agencies, enabling automatic data cross-checks and drastically reducing manual processes that cause delays and errors.
The digitization of the social security archive is also considered crucial, as it converts all old stamps and files into electronic format. Approximately 43 million documents have already been scanned, and according to the plan, digitization progress will reach 90%–95% by July. The next stage involves verifying, correcting, and integrating the data into the ATLAS system so that every insured person has a complete and accurate digital insurance record.
This development is expected to accelerate, in particular, the disbursement of supplementary pensions, where delays have been significantly longer to date due to the need to search for physical files across different supplementary funds. With digital integration, agencies will have immediate access to insurance records without time-consuming searches through archives and storage facilities.
It is no coincidence, after all, that there is public debate about the possibility of abolishing the temporary pension, initially for public sector employees, where the automated award process is already operating at a particularly rapid pace.
According to e-EFKA data, nearly eight out of ten pension decisions for employees with exclusive public sector insurance tenure are now issued in about a month, while for survivor’s pensions, the transfer is completed even on the same day.
Nevertheless, the Fund’s administration makes it clear that as long as there remain categories of insured persons for whom the award cannot be finalized within a month, the provisional pension will not be abolished entirely. The reason is that many insured individuals still have a genuine need for financial support during the waiting period, particularly in cases of consecutive insurance coverage, outstanding debts, or missing documentation.
Social security officials also point out that insured individuals themselves should prepare well in advance of retirement. They recommend, especially those who have been insured in more than one fund or have old contribution stamps from before 2000, to check their insurance history well in advance and request a contribution stamp count from e-EFKA several months before applying for retirement.
Particular attention is also required in identifying “missing” contribution stamps or gaps in insurance coverage to avoid delays during the final processing of the application.
New Information System
It integrates all core information systems into a single, interoperable digital environment and serves as the central hub of the social security system.
- Unified management of contributions and insurance periods
- Automated pension processes
- Enhanced control and transparency
- Faster adaptation to changes
- Integration with key agencies such as the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (IAPR) and the General Commercial Registry (GEMI)
Digitization of insurance history
The project involves the digitization of 42,708,333 pages of insurance history from former primary and supplementary insurance agencies, with the goal of:
- Acceleration of pension disbursements
- Creation of a unified digital archive of insurance data
Using Intelligent Document Processing (IDP):
- Digitization and enrichment of documents with metadata
- Automatic extraction and verification of data
- Human verification for accuracy
Result: faster pension processing, elimination of bureaucratic procedures, and immediate access to insurance records.