The government, via the prime minister himself no less, on Wednesday announced a series of measures for low-income pensioners that are beneficiaries of a soon-to-disappear monthly bonus paid out by their social security funds.
Greek PM Alexis Tsipras used a Cabinet-level council on social policy as the venue to announce the new welfare measures, which include free pharmaceutical care for eligible beneficiaries and exclusion from a 6-percent withholding fee – transferred to the health sector -- slapped pensioners in the wake of the third memorandum.
Additionally, previous beneficiaries of the low-income bonus, called EKAS in its Greek-language acronym, who will lose more than 115 euros per month will instead receive a so-called “solidarity card”. The latter is a pre-paid debit card that holders can use to purchase groceries and other basic necessities every month, essentially an electronic form of food stamps.
The opposition has railed against the leftist government for doing exactly the opposite of its repeated and high-pitched campaign pledges, with the EKAS bonus being one of the first “casualties” of the third memorandum and subsequent negotiations over prior actions.
