With delay than expected and with fewer beneficiaries than initially calculated, the Government has given the green light this Tuesday to extraordinary aid for the unemployed who consumed their benefits or subsidies during the state of alarm.
The measure that has come out of the Council of Ministers consists of an aid of 430 euros per month for three months for those who had exhausted their unemployment insurance between the declaration of the state of alarm and June 30, according to the Ministry of Labor. Under these conditions, the aid will reach just over 250,000 people.
“Help is late and bad.” With this harshness, the majority unions have criticized the measure approved this Tuesday. In their joint statement, UGT and CC OO refer to the “agreement that should cover at least 550,000 people who had exhausted or would exhaust their benefits, in principle, until September30”, which EL PAÍS advanced . Which leads them to speak of “non-compliance.”
The union anger comes because this was his demand almost from the first moment the crisis broke out. His reasoning is that with the aid umbrella (ERTE, benefits for domestic workers …) that was deployed in the early stages of the pandemic there was a group that was left out: those who were already unemployed before the crisis and could not seek employment due to mobility restrictions and the downturn in the economy.
They took this demand to the negotiation of the second extension of the ERTEs and achieved the Government’s commitment to study it, which was included in an additional provision.
This extraordinary subsidy began to be negotiated between Labor and the social agents in the summer. The talks progressed and in August an agreement was being finalized – only the text with the details was missing, sources of the social dialogue pointed out then – for which those who had exhausted their benefits until September 30 would receive the aid. This implied that the potential beneficiaries reached just under 550,000.
A few weeks ago, the unions pressed with a joint statement for the Executive to take forward the aid. In it they detailed how the negotiations were, something unusual and that was proof of their anger at the delay.
From the reading of that note, it can be deduced that what was finally approved is the initial proposal that the Executive made to the social agents, in which this help of 430 euros per month was given for a quarter to those who had exhausted the benefits up to the 30th of June, somewhat longer than the state of alarm lasted.
The total cost of the aid will amount to an amount that ranges between 250 and 300 million, since, in principle, it only consists of the payment of 430 euros (80% of the IPREM) per month and does not entail the Social Security contribution for a base of 125% of the minimum wage that do have other subsidies attached.
The aid will be included in the decree of support for the cultural sector and will cover a group that would have very difficult access to other subsidies such as the minimum income. To receive this aid, the only requirement that will be required will be to have finished the contributory benefit or the subsidy since the state of alarm was approved until June 30