Are you expecting benefits? - Why the delay?

by Andreas Kokkinos

Complaints from beneficiaries of government subsidies are increasing, especially during the month of January, due to the significant delay in disbursements.

Kathimerini contacted Mr. Fanos Kouroufexis, an associate at the Ministry of Labor and Social Insurance and asked what the reason was behind the delay.

Mr. Kouroufexis responded that the delays were due to the increased number of cases plaguing the country while emphasizing that this was not an excuse but a reality.  "There are many factors to which the delay is due, and an important part is due to the pandemic."

Due to the high case numbers, some employees at social security services have either come down with covid or are deemed close contacts, thereby decreasing the number of workers available to process applications for benefits.  Consequently, the lack of workers and an increasing number of covid benefit applications have resulted in the accumulation of thousands of applications being delayed for processing.  "Where we used to manage and pay a few thousand applications a month, we are now called upon to process thousands of applications a day."

He stressed that at the same time a great effort is being made to upgrade the system on which the ministry is working since it is in the stage of a transition to digital format. This means that from next week - as Mr. Kouroufexis himself assured us - it will be possible to submit the sickness benefit application electronically which will greatly speed up the approval and payment process.

He added that the child allowance is already on the digital platform and that the digital upgrade of the Cyprus social insurance services will catapult the Ministry into a new era of efficiency.