Η κοινωνική ασφάλιση στην Ελλάδα: τα φαινόμενα της αδήλωτης εργασίας και εισφοροδιαφυγής των επιχειρήσεων

Abstract

The subject of the present study is the social insurance system in Greece and the problems that characterize it, the phenomenon of undeclared work and contribution evasion. The financial crisis that has plagued our country for almost a decade, has greatly affected the insurance conscience that the employer or the insured may have had in the past, and as a result they are increasingly turning to undeclared work and contribution evasion in order to increase their income in common, free of charge. The evolution of the social security system, coupled with the overall picture of the economy and the ever-widening deficits create the right conditions for the growth of both undeclared work and contribution evasion, thereby magnifying these phenomena. The concern that arises is whether those involved in undeclared work and the evasion of labor realize that what they do, just offers them temporary gain, at the expense of the social security system and welfare benefits, and, unfortunately, they will face the impact in the future, when their retirement time will come and there will be no pension available for them in their insurance funds. In the present work, we will make a historical review of the insurance system from antiquity to recent years, what form it has in our country today, we will analyze the phenomena of undeclared work and contribution evasion, and we will report factors that affect them as well as the measures taken to combat them. We will try to answer the questions whether insured persons and employers have a low insurance conscience, whether the increase in undeclared work and contribution evasion is ultimately affected by the economic crisis and high unemployment rates, which sectors have high rates of undeclared work and contribution evasion, which are the preventive measures of the state to deal with the above-mentioned issues, how much the cooperation of the public services related to these phenomena can help. Finally, we will propose some measures that could perhaps more effectively address undeclared work and reduce contribution evasion, while increasing profits for state coffers.