Grieken zullen tot hun 75e moeten werken (en)

Greeks entering the workplace from the mid-1990s onwards will have to work until they are around 75 years of age to avoid a collapse of the social insurance system, according to a study by the country's second largest bank.

The 17-page study by Alpha-Bank takes a thorough look at Greece's demography and future of its social security system - a system that is so over-burdened that the OECD, the European Commission and the International Monetary Fund have been warning about the consequences for years.

German daily Handelsblatt notes that for most Greeks the idea of working for so long is seen with great alarm.

The paper points out that Greeks have only just got used to having to working until they are 65 - in the 1980s and 1990s, civil servants were able to retire at 50 years of age.

The average retirement age is still below sixty while the country has a higher than EU average life-expectancy and a lower birth rate average.

But Greece is not the only country experiencing these problems. Across the continent, people are living longer and birth rate is generally dropping.

Germany recently underwent painful social reforms to try and alleviate the same problem - of too many people taking out of the common pot and not enough young people to fill it up again.

Italy is also sitting on a pension timebomb.

Portugal, meanwhile, is tackling the issue by focussing on the birth rate.

Under plans by the prime minister, Jose Socrates, workers with two children or less would pay more into the pension system while those with more than two would pay less.