Old e-EFKA debts: unpaid 2016 contributions lapse on 1 January 2027 unless the clock was restarted, paused or extended, and lapsed years stop counting towards a pension

This guide is for people who left social-security contributions unpaid in Greece years ago: shopkeepers, freelancers, engineers, lawyers, farmers, and people who have since moved abroad. In 2022, Greek law cut an existing 20-year limit to ten on how long e-ΕΦΚΑ (Ηλεκτρονικός Εθνικός Φορέας Κοινωνικής Ασφάλισης, Ilektronikos Ethnikos Foreas Koinonikis Asfalisis), Greece's single social-security fund, can claim unpaid contributions.¹³⁵ We found no new law, circular or decision from October 2026. The rules come from article 6 of law 4997/2022, published in the Government Gazette (ΦΕΚ, FEK) on 25 November 2022.¹²³ What makes them relevant now is the calendar.

What happens on 1 January 2027?

Unpaid contributions for January to December 2016 become time-barred on 1 January 2027, according to the worked table in e-EFKA's circular 43/2022, unless something interrupted or paused (suspended) the limitation period, or the debtor lived abroad (see below).¹ The same table shows that contributions for 2015 became time-barred on 1 January 2026.¹ A time-barred debt is ignored when e-EFKA issues an insurance-clearance certificate (ασφαλιστική ενημερότητα, asfalistiki enimerotita, the certificate showing you are up to date with contributions) or a debt statement that serves as one.¹³ But the years a time-barred debt covers stop counting towards a pension.¹⁴

How long does e-EFKA have to collect unpaid contributions?

Under article 95 of law 4387/2016, as rewritten in 2022, e-EFKA's claim for unpaid contributions, with surcharges, interest and fines, becomes time-barred after ten years.¹³ The ten years start on 1 January of the year after the work was done, whenever the debt was certified (βεβαίωση, vevaiosi, the formal entry of a debt for collection).¹³ The ten-year rule applies retroactively from 12 May 2016.¹

For work done after 1 January 2026, the period is five years.¹³ The circular's table puts the first five-year expiry on 1 January 2032, for 2026 contributions.¹

Before 2016, the funds for the self-employed (ΟΑΕΕ, OAEE), farmers (ΟΓΑ, OGA) and professionals such as engineers and lawyers (ΕΤΑΑ, ETAA) had 20 years.¹ In plenary decision 1833/2021, the Council of State (Συμβούλιο της Επικρατείας, Symvoulio tis Epikrateias), Greece's highest administrative court, found the original 20-year rule in article 95 unconstitutional; the circular says the ruling was decisive in prompting the cut.¹

What restarts the clock?

Some events interrupt the period. A new period, ten years (or five for work from 2026), then usually starts on the following day.¹²⁴ The circular lists the following events: a seizure of assets, an auction schedule, a claim lodged in a bankruptcy, a liquidation or a third party's auction, a mortgage or pre-notation, any enforcement act under the public-revenue collection code (ΚΕΔΕ, KEDE), a served individual notice, a served debt-assessment act, and any instalment or payment on account.¹

Some of these count only under conditions. An individual notice (ατομική ειδοποίηση, atomiki eidopoiisi) interrupts the period only if it was served on or after 1 January 2015, and serving another notice for the same debt does not interrupt it again.¹ An assessment act (καταλογιστική πράξη, katalogistiki praxi) served without a payment order counts only if it was served on or after 12 May 2016.¹ A debt certified at ΚΕΑΟ (Κέντρο Είσπραξης Ασφαλιστικών Οφειλών, Kentro Eispraxis Asfalistikon Ofeilon), e-EFKA's collection centre, interrupts the period only if the certification act was served on the debtor.¹² Asking only to find out what you owe, perhaps in order to contest it, does not count as acknowledging the debt.¹

Notices are common. Business Daily reported that KEAO sent 480,673 individual notices in January–September 2025. It and Sofokleousin both put the 2024 total at 446,762.⁹¹⁰

What pauses the clock?

Other events suspend the period: the clock stops and later resumes, rather than starting again.¹ These include payment deferrals or instalment facilities granted in the last two years of the period, statutory stays of enforcement, and court challenges.¹ A court challenge suspends the period until a final judgment; the period then cannot run out until a year after that judgment is served.¹ The out-of-court debt mechanism (law 4738/2020) suspends it for as long as the restructuring lasts. The over-indebted households law (3869/2010) suspends it until a final judgment.¹ For a debt classed as uncollectable, the period is suspended for ten years from the end of the year it was entered in that register.¹

Does living abroad change the dates?

According to e-EFKA's circular, it can. Circular 43/2022 applies by analogy article 137 §3 of law 4270/2014, the public-accounting law. Under that rule, the period is extended by two years if the debtor lived abroad for more than a month, in one stretch or not, during its last two years.¹ We found nothing on how e-EFKA applies this in practice. On our reading, someone who spent more than a month abroad in 2025–2026 could see unpaid 2016 contributions become time-barred on 1 January 2029 rather than 2027, by our calculation.¹

What happens to a debt once it is time-barred?

A debt whose period ran out without an interruption is deemed time-barred, even if a notice was served, a payment was made or the debt was put into a payment plan (ρύθμιση, rythmisi) after the period had ended.¹ Money already paid on a barred debt is not refunded.¹ Barred debts are ignored when e-EFKA issues a clearance certificate.¹³ The circular says the debtor does not need to challenge anything in court or with the authorities for that to happen.¹

Will barred years count towards my pension?

Not unless the owed contributions are paid in full.¹⁴ Insurance time whose contributions are time-barred counts neither towards qualifying for a pension nor towards its amount.⁴ Put simply, a barred year no longer has to be paid, but it no longer counts towards a pension unless the owed contributions are paid in full.¹⁴

The self-employed, professionals and farmers can ask to have all or part of the barred time counted again (συνυπολογισμός, synypologismos).¹³ They must ask together with their pension application: the law says at the same time, and e-EFKA's guidance says at the latest with it.¹²³⁴ The time is counted once they pay all the owed contributions in full, with all surcharges, interest and fines.¹³ This also applies to people insured with several funds, even if the fund paying the pension is an employees' fund.¹

Separately, employer inspections covering salaried work from 2006 to 2011 that were under way when the law took effect, or that follow complaints filed by 30 June 2022, end without charges against the employer, but the findings are still added to the workers' insurance records.¹³ e-EFKA's press release says workers therefore do not lose their insurance rights for those years.⁵

How do I ask e-EFKA to recognise the limitation?

Where e-EFKA's computer records cannot complete the automatic check and write-off, the person applies to the competent local directorate (Τοπική Διεύθυνση, Topiki Diefthynsi) of e-EFKA with any proof of the limitation.²⁶ The application must include a solemn declaration (υπεύθυνη δήλωση, ypefthyni dilosi) asking for the limitation rules to be applied and naming the periods, fund and branch. One joint application covers several former funds.² The official procedures register, mitos.gov.gr, says the declaration must state that the applicant knows the legal consequences of the limitation.⁶

Applications from former ΕΤΑΑ members (the engineers' fund ΤΣΜΕΔΕ, TSMEDE, the health professionals' fund ΤΣΑΥ, TSAY, and the lawyers' fund ΤΑΝ, TAN) and from former members of ΕΤΑΠ-ΜΜΕ (ETAP-MME, the former fund for media and press workers) are examined by e-EFKA's 3rd and 4th Pension Award Directorates.² According to mitos.gov.gr, applications can be filed in person, by post or by email, there is no fee, and handling takes seven days to three months.⁶ The same page lists myEFKAlive only as a remote service point, not as a way to file.⁶ The office tells the applicant in writing which periods are barred and which interrupting events it found.²⁶

What should I weigh before acting?

Barring applies by law, so the pension credit for a barred year is lost whether or not you apply; the choice is whether to pay to have that time counted again.¹⁴ One step does ask you to give the time up in writing.⁴ e-EFKA's FAQ says a self-employed person who wants a clearance certificate despite barred debts submits a «υπεύθυνη δήλωση περί αποποίησης του χρόνου ασφάλισης», a "solemn declaration renouncing the insurance time" that corresponds to those debts, in our translation.⁴ Weigh that time against your pension plans before you sign.

An application to have the limitation recognised also affects newer debts.² Any debt that the office finds still within the ten years is certified at KEAO straight away, and the certification act is served on the debtor so that the limitation is interrupted.² On our reading, an application can therefore restart the clock on more recent debts that were not yet certified.² Payments and instalments on a debt that is not yet barred also interrupt the period.¹

This guide is general information, not legal advice. Check your own KEAO record and any notices you have been served, ideally with an accountant or lawyer, before you apply or pay.