Greek Labour and Social Security Minister Niki Kerameos has announced the permanent repeal of cuts to widows’ and widowers’ pensions introduced under the 2016 Katrougalos Law, ending what she described as a decade-long unresolved issue for pensioners.
Speaking on the reform, Kerameos said the measure would affect several categories of beneficiaries and would bring an end to uncertainty for thousands of surviving spouses.
“We tend to talk about the Katrougalos Law, but it is actually the Tsipras law, let’s not forget that,” she said, referring to the pension reform passed under the former SYRIZA government of Alexis Tsipras. According to Kerameos, the law had left hundreds of thousands of retirees “hostage” for a decade.
Who is affected by the pension changes
Kerameos said the reform covers three main categories of pensioners.
The first concerns around 8,500 widows’ and widowers’ pension recipients who, under the Tsipras-Katrougalos framework, initially received 70% of their deceased spouse’s pension, only for that amount to be reduced to 35% after three years.
Under the new provision, these pensioners will see their benefits restored from 35% to 70%.
The second category concerns approximately 75,000 surviving spouses who were due to face the same reduction, from 70% to 35%, and who also risked being asked to repay amounts retroactively. Kerameos said this cut will no longer take place and that no retroactive payments will be demanded by the state or EFKA, Greece’s main social security fund.
“Everyone will remain at 70%,” she said, adding that EFKA would not seek “even a single euro” in repayments.
The third category concerns pensioners who receive two national pension amounts based on different entitlements: one from their own pension rights and another through a survivor’s pension. Kerameos said that while the previous law, later upheld by the Council of State, Greece’s supreme administrative court, had prevented the receipt of two such national pension components, the new provision allows beneficiaries to continue receiving both when they are based on different entitlements.
A wider social security reform
The labour minister described the measure as structural, saying it applies across the social security system, particularly to survivor pensions, and “puts an end to the plight” of affected citizens.
Kerameos said the reform had been made possible by increased revenue generated through Greece’s Digital Work Card, a system designed to record working hours and overtime more accurately.
“In just the first four months of 2026, thanks to the bold implementation of the Digital Work Card, we have already exceeded our medium-term target by €517 million,” she said.
“We are not simply here to support society. We are doing so by sharing the fruits of growth,” she added.
Responding to PASOK, Greece’s socialist opposition party, whose spokesperson had attempted to claim credit for the reform, Kerameos said that calling for an end to pension cuts was not enough.
“You have to figure out how to do it — first legally, and second, with what money,” she said. She argued that the reform was possible because the government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis had implemented the Digital Work Card despite strong opposition, creating what she described as a clear economic benefit.
According to Kerameos, the Labour Ministry recorded a €517 million surplus in the first four months of 2026, which the government now intends to return to society through measures such as the pension reform.
Kerameos criticises PASOK and SYRIZA
The minister also criticised PASOK leader Nikos Androulakis over his party’s stance on a bill transposing a European directive on equal pay for men and women performing work of equal value.
Kerameos noted that Androulakis had voted in favour of the directive when he was a Member of the European Parliament, but that PASOK did not vote in favour of the bill in principle in the Greek Parliament.
“This is PASOK’s responsible opposition,” she said, adding that the party had voted in favour of the bill’s individual articles but abstained on the principle.
“What exactly does ‘abstain’ mean when it comes to a fundamental right and the fundamental principle of equal pay between men and women?” Kerameos asked.
She said SYRIZA, Greece’s left-wing opposition party, had taken the same stance.
Kerameos also criticised PASOK’s proposed amendments on arduous and unhealthy work, arguing that they lacked proper analysis of their cost and consequences for the social security system and the National Health System.
Minimum wage, pensions and disposable income
Kerameos said the government’s priority was to increase citizens’ disposable income while respecting Greece’s fiscal limits.
She referred to the increase in the minimum wage from €650 to €950, total pension increases of more than 16%, the annual €300 supplement paid each November to low-income pensioners and disability pensioners, and the abolition of the personal difference mechanism affecting pension payments.
“We must be extremely careful not to return to the period that brought us to the brink of disaster,” she said.
Kerameos also referred to the abolition of withholding tax for working pensioners, describing it as a fiscally efficient measure.
On the labour market, she said unemployment had fallen to 8.1%, while around 600,000 people who had been receiving unemployment benefits in 2019 were now employed and paying social security contributions and taxes.
She added that the minimum wage had risen from €650 to €920, while the average wage had exceeded €1,500, up from €1,200.
“The first five months of 2026 are the best five-month period since 2001 — the last 25 years,” she said, adding that 320,000 new jobs had been created during that period.
Digital Work Card and overtime declarations
Kerameos placed particular emphasis on the Digital Work Card, saying it had significantly increased declared overtime and, as a result, state revenue.
“There are sectors where overtime increased by 1,200% — a staggering figure,” she said. According to the minister, this showed that overtime previously going undeclared was now being recorded, generating additional income for workers and the state.
She also noted that the Digital Work Card had recently been expanded to another half a million workers, which she said would bring further revenue.
On the issue of high prices, Kerameos said the government was working on two fronts: addressing potential cartel practices through the independent Competition Commission, and increasing disposable income through higher wages and lower taxes and social security contributions.
“There is no better remedy for high prices than raising wages and lowering taxes and contributions,” she said.
Condemnation of fatal Thessaloniki attack
Kerameos also condemned the fatal gas-canister attack in Thessaloniki, which led to the death of Vagia Nestora, the mother of New Democracy official Aphrodite Nestora.
“What happened two days ago constitutes a murderous attack, and I choose my words carefully,” she said.
Kerameos said such acts of violence must be condemned by all political forces, but added that condemnation alone was not enough.
“We must also politically isolate such acts of violence,” she said.
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