The Greek Finance Ministry has allocated a meagre 27 million Euros for struggling pensioners from the 1.8 billion Euros released by the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) to cover state arrears to the private sector in the Greek economy. According to a report by the ESM, even though the Greek government has shown some progress in paying out overdue debts, the structural deficiencies still present are causing the accumulation of new arrears. The report reveals that the Greek government did not pay out a single Euro in outstanding debts to pensioners from the 1,439 billion revenues in the two months leading up to August, releasing only 27 million in September. Despite the state delaying pending payments to private procurers, pensioners and other private sector entities, which led to a 2.738 billion Euros drop in budget expenditure until May (down to 20 billion from the 22 billion target for the 5-month term), the 6-month target between January-June 2016 was still off target, standing at 3.350 billion Euros, a 650 million Euro discrepancy compered to the budget target. The report also highlights delays in tax returns, as the state paid out only 108 million Euros to those eligible. Despite 77 million going to cleared -but unpaid- tax returns from the 1.8 billion Euros disbursed, state debts increased by 133 million Euros by the end of September from 1.306 in June to 1.439 billion in September.