Greek member of parliament and former minister Makis Voridis has given full backing to government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis over recent remarks on unemployment benefits, telling television channel Action24 that Greece needs a broad rationalization of its welfare policy.
Voridis said it was clear that Marinakis had not been referring to seasonal workers, but rather to the benefits strategy adopted by a section of the population. He pointed to what he called a paradox in the labour market, in which businesses report being unable to find staff while unemployment stands at 7%.
Benefits policy is something Greece needs to move toward making more rational, Voridis said, adding that this was exactly what Marinakis had meant. He said the accumulation of parallel benefits creates distortions, since alongside unemployment benefit there also exist rent subsidies, exemptions on medicine costs, subsidised transport and free social tutoring.
Voridis said it was not logical that adding up all these benefits could bring someone a thousand euros a month. He said such cases create a disincentive to work, pushing people to ask why they should go and work if they could receive a thousand euros a month and stay at home. That, he said, was the point Marinakis had been making.
Fragmented oversight of benefits
Voridis also raised concerns about the fragmentation of responsibility for welfare payments, noting that different state bodies each manage individual benefits separately. As a result, he said, there is no overall picture of the total value of support a person receives.
He said this situation calls for comprehensive work to bring all the schemes together, concluding that a large-scale, coordinated effort is needed to rationalize the entire framework of benefits provision in Greece.
Background
Voridis is a member of parliament and former minister for New Democracy, the governing party of Greece. Marinakis serves as the government spokesperson. Action24 is a private Greek television channel.
