Additional aid for families hardest hit by Covid-19 crisis

An additional half a million euros has been secured to help families hardest hit by the Covid-19 pandemic in Benidorm.
TO date, €1.4 million has already been given to more than 1,600 people in the town, to try to mitigate the social and economic affect of the crisis.
“We have practically consumed the €1.4 million that we allocated,” said town mayor, Toni Perez, pointing out that the cash “corresponds to 20 per cent of the surplus of 2019, the maximum percentage that the government of Spain has allowed the municipalities to allocate to measures related to the crisis of coronavirus.
“From the minute zero we had the conviction and commitment to allocate this aid to the families of Benidorm, to inject economy into the home.”
Since the start of the pandemic, 1,436 ‘aids’ have been granted and 182 support resources have been established in Benidorm, totalling €1,394,100, leaving €5,900 of the amount initially reserved.
This is “an insufficient remainder to meet the pending requests, which has led the local government to promote a budget modification, which was signed today, to inject an extraordinary €500,000 from current resources of the 2020 budget,” explained Perez.
The mayor expressed “apologies to the beneficiaries of these aids for the delay” in payment, sending a “message of hope” and said the council will take care of all the requests for aid “within this year.”
He added that the local authority is “already resolving and paying municipal aid to companies, businesses, SMEs and self-employed, for which has been allocated €1.5 million.
“This town hall is not going to do as other administrations, which have launched calls for applications and then send a letter to most of the petitioners to tell them that there is no budget left to meet their request, even if it meets the requirements and conditions established,” said Perez.
He said he regretted that many families in Benidorm are still waiting for the Minimum Life Income, announced in late May by the Spanish government, or to collect the ERTE.