Stuttgart / Berlin. The Corona emergency aid in Baden-Wurttemberg should now be paid out without checking private assets – the Baden-Wurttemberg Ministry of Economic Affairs announced on Sunday. The decision also applied retrospectively to all applications since the emergency aid started last Wednesday.
“Ambiguities removed”
“Instead, applicants only have to prove that the current operating income is not sufficient to finance the company’s current operating costs,” said Economics Minister Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut (CDU).
Specifically, the applicant now has to assure that the corona pandemic will cause it to run into economic difficulties or a liquidity bottleneck and threaten its existence, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said. This is the case if the ongoing income from the business of the person concerned is not sufficient to pay the liabilities of the next three months, such as rents or leases or leasing contracts.
Previously, there had been criticism of the country’s emergency aid because small and micro-entrepreneurs and solo self-employed persons should have used their private assets to secure business. This would punish those who would have done well, the entrepreneurs said. “We launched this program in one effort within a few days. In such a situation it is inevitable that even after the program starts, key points have to be clarified, ambiguities have to be cleared or interpretation questions have to be clarified, ”said Hoffmeister-Kraut.
In the meantime, the craft and travel industries complain of a lack of support and a funding gap. “In this extreme situation, in addition to small businesses, those with more than ten employees also need immediate help,” said craft president Hans Peter Wollseifer. Large parts of the middle class fell through the grid of direct grants. The German Travel Association (DRV) made a similar statement.
Federal Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier (CDU) tried to defuse the criticism. “With comprehensive measures, we help the entire economy, from small to large, and employees to deal with this extreme situation,” Altmaier wrote in a letter to business associations. At the same time, he held out the prospect of further state boost for the period after the crisis.
