Every year, at this time of the year, the debate begins on whether or not to give emergency aid before Easter to vulnerable social groups and vulnerable households. On the part of the Ministry of National Economy and Finance, the official and unofficial statements of the minister, the competent deputy ministers, and the competent officials generally go along the lines that “it’s too early to discuss something like that” or that “in order to give such an allowance the budget revenues should allow it”.
These statements usually precede the final decisions of the Prime Minister Mr. Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who in recent years has proven that before the Easter and Christmas holidays he approves the granting of an emergency allowance to social groups that continue to be affected by the prolonged scourge of punctuality .
The surpluses
This Easter, however, things are quite different compared to other periods of time when emergency aid is given.
On the one hand, there is the European Commission’s cut in benefits in order not to jeopardize the state budget’s goal of achieving primary surpluses, and on the other hand, there is the prolonged accuracy and also the European elections, where the government obviously, if it is financially possible, wants to support around 2,500 .000 of our fellow citizens who live on fairly low incomes.
As reported in “Vima tis Kyriaki” by a responsible factor of the Ministry of Finance, “At the moment we speak, emergency aid is not in the financial staff’s plans. However, these plans may change if the state budget revenues overperform and the Prime Minister decides that an emergency aid should be given again.”
“As long as we last”
It is not by chance that the recent public response of the Minister of National Economy and Finance Mr. Kostis Hatzidakis to a related question, mentioning among other things that “I don’t see anything on the horizon, however that will depend on how things play out.” He mentioned that “Our first job is not to pay money we don’t have. Our first job is to make the economy work properly. We will never give more than we can handle».
The Deputy Minister of Finance, Mr. Haris Theoharis, is on the same wavelength, who, referring to the possibility of granting emergency financial assistance to the most vulnerable categories of citizens for Easter, clarified that “At the moment, it is too early for any discussion about the Easter bonus, and this is because we do not have sufficient data on the progress of the implementation of the budget. We have a first picture for January – and even without the final data, so it is not possible to decide whether or not there is room for extraordinary support.”
Narrow margins
This year’s budget, drawn up under tight budgetary margins due to both the changes decided by the European Union and the fact that the escape clause that worked beneficially for benefits in the past four years ceased to apply, should achieve a primary surplus of 1.1% of GDP and the economy to grow by 2.1% of GDP. These two goals are difficult to achieve, which is why the government’s economic staff is holding back on a series of emergency benefits but also on requests from social and professional groups such as farmers.
However, the decision on whether or not an extraordinary allowance will be given is expected to be taken in April based on the progress of the budget revenues and the beneficiaries will be low pensioners, families with children, those receiving a minimum guaranteed income and people with disabilities.
Beneficiaries
In particular, it is estimated that the low pensioners who may receive the emergency aid which is estimated to range from 150 to 200 euros amount to 1,055,000 and receive a monthly main pension of up to 700 euros. In the case of families with children, beneficiaries will be 800,000 households that receive the family allowance through an approved application A21 from OPECA and the amount they can receive will amount to one and a half monthly installments.
As regards the 210,000 beneficiaries of the Minimum Guaranteed Income, the emergency aid is estimated to amount to 50% of the monthly allowance, while for the 225,000 people with disabilities who receive a welfare allowance from OPECA, it is estimated that the emergency aid, if approved, will range from 150 to 200 euros.
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