The possible loss of pension funds is a major concern of the country's labour force, as Greece continues to slide deeper into the economic despair affecting the rest of Europe.

And now, the workers' fears have worsened as the Labour Institute of the General Confederation of Greek Labour (GSEE) and the Civil Servants’ Union (ADEDY) announced that social security funds will go bust by 2014.  

 
The report went on to say that probably many pensioners will be unable to receive their pensions after five years, unless there are fresh injections of funding into the social security systems.

The global economic crisis and the government’s strict adherence to fiscal discipline, which do not allow for the support of the system from the budget, are canceling out the demographic and actuarial studies that guaranteed the viability of the Social Security Foundation (IKA) until 2023 and of all funds until at least 2017.

The considerable changes in revenues are already reflected in IKA, where the evasion of contributions has gone over seven billion Euros. Also, in the first months of this year, uninsured workers have increased by 15 percent and the delay in contributions is at 25 percent.

Moderate estimates suggest that even a rise in the number of those unemployed by 80,000 will signify a loss of revenues of 450 million Euros. This is at a period when IKA will need an extra two billion Euros to cover the pensions of the funds that have been merged with it, those of the Public Power Corporation (PPC) and OTE telecom.

The budget support to IKA for this end does not exceed 1.2 billion Euros. In this tight climate, the Employment Ministry appears ready to forfeit on recent assurances about abolishing favorable adjustments for the repayment of overdue social security contributions.