Emergency stipend for wage earners to be deposited by April 10

The government hopes to deposit an emergency stipend of 800 euros for workers at businesses that have suspended their employment contracts as a result of coronavirus lockdown measures by April 10, which also marks the new extended deadline for applications on the Ergani database. According to official figures, 300,000 businesses had submitted applications by Monday for 410,000 employees who are currently out of work.

Labor Minister Yiannis Vroutsis has also said that more businesses will be able to apply for relief, whether they have been shut down on the orders of the government or have sustained heavy losses as a result of the lockdown. Information on which businesses this applies to, as well as on the documents required to apply for the funding, are available on Ergani.

Businesses that are to receive relief will do so on the condition that they do not cut jobs.

Applications for employees who are out of work will be submitted as of Wednesday on the special platform supportemployees.yeka.gr, granting them a 40 percent discount on rent and the 800-euro stipend. The system has been staggered so as to avoid a surge in applications that may overwhelm the platform, meaning that salaried workers can submit their applications on the date corresponding to the last digit of their tax ID numbers – on April 1 if it ends in 1, on April 2 if it ends in 2 and so forth, by April 10, which is the deadline for applications with a tax ID ending in 0.

The April 10 deadline may be extended in due course to facilitate the procedure.

Applicants will need to fill a formal declaration with their personal details, the number assigned to the application made by their employer on the Ergani database (this may be automatic), their bank account details and the details of their lease if they live in a rented apartment or house and are seeking the 40 percent discount.

Applications for relief from freelance professionals, individual businesses, self-employed workers and small businesses with a staff of up to five people will be accepted on the Ergani database as of April 6.

“Scientific” worker categories like economic advisers, accountants, engineers, lawyers, doctors, interns and researchers are not entitled to the 800-euro stipend unless the lockdown stretches into May and beyond, the government has said. Instead, they will be granted a “training voucher” worth 600 euros that will be bankrolled with European Union funding.