The festive gift of “Sodra” reached part of the Lithuanian population before Easter: the sums were surprising, late fees will be calculated

Photographer Gediminas has been capturing the most important moments of various holidays for 15 years, but this year the man himself was not waiting for festive greetings, but a letter from “Sodra”, reports LNK.

“A colleague got it. The amounts are not small,” he said.

“Sodra” reminds that two years have already passed since the quarantine, so it’s time to repay the debts.

“If people experienced financial difficulties, their work was stopped, it was possible not to pay PSD contributions, but still people were covered by health insurance,” said Malgožata Kozič, representative of “Sodra”.

Part of the population managed to forget about it.

“People were not exempted from paying those premiums forever. They were postponed”, said M. Kozič.

“I had forgotten. I haven’t received the letter yet,” photographer Gediminas admitted.

The residents, after receiving the messages, attacked “Sodra” with calls.

“The siege of the call center is big,” said M. Kozič.

115,000 self-employed persons must return unpaid premiums for compulsory health insurance by April 30, otherwise they will become debtors. Starting in May, “Sodra” will also calculate late interest and, if necessary, collect debts.

“These can be completely insignificant amounts, and the maximum amount, if a person has not paid PSD contributions during two quarantines, amounts to almost 700 euros,” said the Sodra representative.

“It’s really quite a large amount. We are photographers – it’s not like we can work with something constantly like others,” said Gediminas, who is still waiting for the letter.

It is true that some of the employees are not satisfied. They received messages about debts only to their personal Sodra accounts, and not by e-mail, as they had requested. The representative of “Sodra” also gave her response to such fears.

“A self-employed person is self-employed and takes care of paying contributions himself. Such a person should occasionally use his personal account”, said M. Kozič.

At the same time, the Bank of Lithuania is not counting the debts accumulated during the quarantine, but people’s savings.

“Over 6 billion was received, which corresponds, roughly speaking, to 15 percent of the income earned by all households in 2022,” said Darius Imbrasas, Chief Economist of the Bank of Lithuania.

It was also evaluated by economists.

This amount is 3 to 5 times higher than the historical average.

“At that time, wages and the wage fund rose, and the possibilities to spend money were severely limited,” noted economist I. Genytė-Pikčienė.

“The state also contributed to the creation of these savings, because, compared to the trends we saw before the pandemic, its social benefits and tax deferrals also contributed to the fact that the population had more free money,” said D. Imbras.

During the pandemic, the state generously distributed various benefits to help survive the difficult period. True, it turned out that both those who needed it and those who didn’t took it. The latter have accumulated the most savings.

“The majority of them were received by one tenth of the richest Lithuanian households,” said D. Imbrasas.

True, the state’s sprinkling of money did not hurt much this time.

“Monitoring the finances of the public sector, the indebtedness levels of the government sector, this did not weaken us very significantly,” said I. Genytė-Pikčienė, economist of Šiaulių bankas.

Even if for someone, the benefits have become additions to the income already received.

“This has helped our households prepare for the challenges ahead.” As you know, we were hit by a war, an energy shock, a tsunami of inflation,” said the economist.

The richest invested the savings accumulated during the pandemic in shares, bonds, made deposits or repaid loans. A fifth of them bought real estate.

“Apparently, due to the fear that cash will depreciate, we see that a considerable part of these funds was directed to real estate as well. Finally, if we look at the picture in the middle of last year, we saw that the liquid money that people had in cash or deposits – they practically did not remain”, said D. Imbrasas.

It is true that, compared to the quarantine period, now the residents’ savings have melted almost 3 times.

You can find the full report on the LNK portal: