Increased benefits up to 900 euros and broadening eligibility to retired, renters and families with children with new income limits income.
With broadened income and asset criteria, increased assistance amounts and a significant expansion of beneficiaries, the new support measures for 2025 covering pensioners, renters and families with children, directing resources from the surplus to real economy and attempting to mitigate the pressures from the increased cost of living, with aid up to €900, permanent benefits for vulnerable groups and targeted interventions in housing and income.
Bigger benefits and to more people is brought by the new 500 million package of measures. euros announced by the government, according to ProtoThema.gr, taking advantage of the surplus of 2025.
The extraordinary support
Extraordinary support to families with children, expansion of rent reimbursement to new beneficiaries and an increase in support for more pensioners make up the main body of the interventions.
About 420,000 more pensioners are included in the system, an additional 70.000 tenants gain access to rent rebate, while nearly 1 million families with children receive the emergency aid, with a total of over 3.3 million beneficiaries.
Retiree aid increases
According to the measures announced by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and specified by the political leadership of the Ministry of National Economy and Finance, the biggest intervention is targeted at pensioners.
The aid is increased from 250 to 300 euros net and is paid every November on a permanent basis. The income threshold for single people is raised from 14,000 to 25,000 euros and for married people from 26,000 to 35,000 euros. The property thresholds are increased from 200,000 to 300,000 euros for unmarried persons and from 300,000 to 400,000 euros for married persons. With the new data, the number of beneficiaries increases by 420,000 to a total of 1.87 million.
Of these, some 1.66 million are pensioners over 65 years of age, while some 61,000 disability benefit recipients and 16,900 uninsured seniors are added. Coverage now reaches 85% of pensioners over 65, and no income or age criteria apply to those receiving a disability pension. The fiscal cost of the intervention amounts to about €200 million.
Rent reimbursement is being expanded: For unmarried people without children, the threshold is increased from 20,000 to 25,000 euros. For married couples, from 28,000 euros plus 4,000 euros per child, it rises to 35,000 euros with an additional 5,000 euros per child. For single-parent families, from 31,000 to 39,000 euros, with an increase of 5,000 euros for each child after the first.
With these changes, beneficiaries increase to about 1.02 million out of a total of 1.19 million renters, or 86 percent of households. The additional fiscal cost amounts to €25 million. At the same time, a special arrangement is provided for about 50,000 doctors and nurses, who will receive two rent-free rents within the year.
Extraordinary aid to families with children
For families with children, the aid is paid without application at the end of June and is scaled according to the number of children and income, covering about 80% of children. In practice, a single person with one child and an income of up to 39,000 euros will receive 150 euros, with two children and an income of up to 44,000 euros 300 euros, with three children and an income of up to 49,000 euros 450 euros, while for four, five and six or more children the aid reaches 600, 750 and at least 900 euros respectively, with maximum income thresholds of up to 64,000 euros.
For married households, the threshold starts at 40.000 euros for one child (150 euros aid), rising to 45,000 euros for two children (300 euros), 50,000 euros for three children (450 euros), 55,000 euros for four children (600 euros), 60,000 euros for five children (750 euros) and up to 65,000 euros for six or more children (900 euros or more). In total, around 975,000 households out of a total of 1.2 million, with 3.3 million members, are eligible. The payment will be made automatically based on 2025 tax returns, without application, and an IBAN declaration to the AADE is required. The fiscal cost amounts to €240 million.
The measures on diesel and fertilizers are extended. On the energy and production side, the subsidy on diesel is extended by 20 cents per litre (16 cents plus VAT) for the month of May, at a fiscal cost of €55 million, in order to limit the impact of international price volatility and contain costs in the supply chain.
At the same time, the subsidy on fertilisers continues until August, covering 15% of the value of purchase invoices for the period from mid-March to the end of summer. The measure affects around 250,000 farmers and primary sector businesses, at an additional cost of €23 million and a total cost of €41 million, as international prices remain high.
