ML-Implode News - Greek Pensions Hot Potato Puts Tsipras in Bailout Tight Spot

``The 82-year-old is one of about 2.7 million pensioners likely to face a cut in monthly payments for the 12th time since the debt crisis in 2010, as part of the measures required for the disbursement of the next tranche of emergency loans.Â The government of Alexis Tsipras wants any new cuts in pensions to be phased in gradually and not be put in place from 2019 -- an election year -- as creditors demand. It says it wants to protect pensioners like Spiros, who account for more than a quarter of the country's 10 million population and are already bracing for higher health insurance costs and a lower income-tax-free threshold.
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The International Monetary Fund, backed by Greece's euro-area creditors, is pushing Athens to save 1.8 billion euros, or 1 percent of gross domestic product, from pension cuts. Greece spends more than 13.3 percent of its GDP on old-age pensions, the highest proportion in the European Union, Eurostat figures show.
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Greece, which crossed what it once characterized as a red line and accepted the need for pension cuts, is asking creditors to give the country more time to see how measures agreed to last year work before embarking on anything new.
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The country hasn't yet put in place a proper social welfare system, making pensions the de facto safety net for many families, supporting several generations. A survey in January showed that 49 percent of households relied on pensions as a primary source of income. Further cuts in pensions has become a thorny issue to sell at home as pensioners use their ever-shrinking income to support jobless children at time when youth unemployment stands at more than 40 percent.

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Greek Pensions Hot Potato Puts Tsipras in Bailout Tight Spot