Greece has stopped various benefits, including pensions, to 200,000 people who lied to get their monthly cheques or were dead, a Greek labour ministry official has said.
The number is roughly 2 per cent of the population. Debt-laden Athens discovered the fraud after beginning basic data cross checks and means-testing. The government terminated payments to families that continued to receive the pensions of their dead seniors.
It also stopped benefits to wealthy recipients who had posed as poor to become eligible. The cuts will generate savings of up to €800 million annually, said a labour ministry official. Efforts to shore up the pension system are being hampered, however, by unemployment which is at nearly 22 per cent. – (Reuters)
