Under the slogan “Simple – Modern – With Transparency,” the informational event of the Ministry of Social Cohesion and Family on the Prepaid Social Benefits Card was held on Friday, June 26, 2026, at the Foundation of the Hellenic World.
According to the relevant announcement, the Prepaid Card concerns 19 categories of DYPA and OPEKA benefits and introduces a unified way of paying welfare benefits, allowances, and financial aid. With the card, each beneficiary receives the benefits included in the program through a simpler, safer, and more transparent process.
“Social policy is not only about establishing a benefit. It is also about paying it correctly. Ensuring it arrives quickly, with security, without unnecessary hassle, and that the beneficiary can use it easily for purchases of products and services.
This is what the Prepaid Social Benefits Card serves. Specific OPEKA and DYPA benefits are now paid through a unified payment method. Each beneficiary is assigned one card, to which the social benefits included in the program are credited.
The beneficiary can withdraw up to 50% of the amount of each benefit in cash. The remaining amount is used with the card for purchases of products and services. We are not abolishing the flexibility that cash provides. We are combining it with a more modern, safer, and more transparent way of conducting transactions”, stated in her message the Minister of Social Cohesion and Family Domna Michailidou.
According to the data presented at the event, from March 2025 until today more than 963,000 applications have been approved in the Integrated Information System of the Prepaid Card, while 877,019 unique beneficiaries have received their benefits through the new payment system.
Through the Prepaid Card, among others, 647,600 beneficiaries of the A21 Child Benefit, 203,734 beneficiaries of the Minimum Guaranteed Income, 91,340 beneficiaries of the Birth Allowance, and 767 beneficiaries of foster care financial support have already been paid. On the part of DYPA, from March 2025 until today, 4,864,707 benefit payments have been made through prepaid cards, totaling more than 2.17 billion euros.
A discussion followed on the topic “The Prepaid Card in practice: simpler, more modern, with transparency,” with the participation of the Secretary General for Social Solidarity and Combating Poverty, Konstantinos Megaritis, the President of OPEKA, Epameinondas Atsaves, the General Director of DYPA, Konstantinos Georgmas, as well as a card beneficiary.
During the discussion, the method of implementing the Prepaid Card, the cooperation of the bodies that participated in the implementation of the project, and the benefits of the new system for beneficiaries were presented: less bureaucracy, safer transactions, and greater transparency in payments. Special care has been taken for beneficiaries with severe visual disabilities, for whom payment of the benefit through a bank account continues to apply.
The initiative is being implemented by the Ministry of Social Cohesion and Family within the framework of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan “Greece 2.0,” with funding from the European Union NextGenerationEU.