The Ministry of Social Cohesion and Family is issuing a new circular aimed at resolving an administrative loophole that had excluded the heirs of deceased persons with disabilities from receiving payments.
The regulation applies to cases where individuals had already initiated the disability certification process through the National Disability Portal but were unable to complete their application to OPEKA for the relevant allowance before their death.
Until now, in such cases, retroactive payments could not be awarded to the legal heirs, even if the disability had been recognized or was in the process of being recognized.
Under the new circular, applications for certification submitted on or after September 16, 2022, will also be considered applications for the allowance, provided the applicant passed away before completing the process with OPEKA.
A prerequisite is that the heirs must act within the time limits provided for by applicable law (Article 103, paragraph 10 of Law 4961/2022). In these cases, the date of the initial application for disability certification is considered the application date.
This measure paves the way for the payment of the amounts owed to beneficiaries through their heirs, resolving a significant outstanding issue.
As Domna Michailidou stated, this is an initiative that rectifies an injustice, based on the principles of good governance and public trust in the state, with a total cost of nearly 1 million euros.
