Status: 01/08/2022 1:00 p.m.
The first applications for new state corona aid have already arrived at the Ministry of Economic Affairs. It is mainly the operators of restaurants, cafés and bars who apply for funding.
The new economic aid to compensate for the burdens caused by the Corona crisis is particularly popular in the hospitality industry. According to the Federal Ministry of Economics, a funding volume of almost 200,000 euros was applied for immediately with the start of further aid on Friday.
As the ministry also announced, the first applications were submitted by companies from Bremen and North Rhine-Westphalia, among others. Applications for the funding period January to March 2022 can be submitted since Friday. The application deadline is the end of April.
Personnel costs can also be claimed
The funding conditions for companies have been improved again “in order to take up the concerns of the industries concerned,” said the ministry. Not only material costs, but also personnel costs that companies incur through 2G and 2G-Plus access controls can now be claimed.
Depending on the course of the pandemic, the Ministry of Economic Affairs expects up to 100,000 companies to submit applications. Minister Robert Habeck promised the first advance payments in the next few weeks. “We know that it is time-consuming and expensive for many companies to implement 2G rules or other corona access restrictions.” Finance Minister Christian Lindner emphasized that the federal government is standing by the side of companies to alleviate the burden of the pandemic as much as possible.
Gastronomy fears further losses
The hospitality industry in particular feels disadvantaged by the tightening of the corona rules. Restaurants, bars and cafes fear further losses. The federal and state governments had agreed that the 2G plus rule will apply in the catering sector in the future. So only vaccinated and convalescent with an additional test have access. This does not apply to people with a booster vaccination; they do not need a test.
The chairman of the Dehoga Hotel and Restaurant Association, Ingrid Hartges, considers the tightening to be “a disaster”: the companies are already struggling with significant sales losses compared to 2019. “Every second entrepreneur is worried about his existence,” Hartges told the news portal “watson”. “The effects, especially in terms of employees, are already catastrophic. We have already lost 100,000 employees.”
100,000 euros per funding month possible
Bridging aid IV can be obtained from the company’s tax advisors via the platform www.ueberbrueckungshilfe-unternehmen.de apply for. According to the information, the approval offices of the federal states are responsible for processing, and they could approve down payments of up to 100,000 euros per funding month. Advance payments are advance payments that are later compared with the actual economic damage.