Social Insurance Institute

The Social Insurance Institute (Greek: Ίδρυμα Κοινωνικών Ασφαλίσεων, IKA) was the largest, state based, social security organization in Greece: its beneficiaries were 5,530,000 members of the Greek employed population and 830,000 pensioners.

A common myth in Greece is that it was created by the Metaxas regime (1936-1941), however in reality it was its function that began in 1937 while the establishment had already happened in 1934.

However, press reports describing the IKA as a "black hole" whose collapse is imminent are denied.

This revealed that 63,500 had died - some long ago - and that around 7 to 8 billion euros had been paid to relatives of the deceased in the last ten years.

[2] Because of the financial crisis, the Greek state has also frozen subsidies to hospitals and insurance companies.