Labor and Social Affairs allocates more than 906 million to direct aid for covid-19

Since the outbreak of the covid-19 pandemic, the Departament de Treball, Afers Socials i Famílies (DTASF) has allocated more than 906 million euros to more than twenty aids and subsidies to mitigate the social, economic and labor effects derived from the health crisis. The aids have directly benefited more than 310,000 households, more than 343,000 self-employed workers and micro-enterprises, and more than 1,500 projects from entities, companies, and local bodies. And they have indirectly improved the lives of thousands of other families.

In April 2020, just weeks after the start of the state of alarm, the first calls were already launched: an aid of 200 euros to cover basic supplies for workers in ERTE who had not yet received the unemployment benefit from the SEPE, which benefited 100,000 households; and a first call for aid for self-employed workers whose economic activity was affected.

More than 866 million euros in the labor field

The field of work is the one that has gathered the most resources, due to the negative impact that the coronavirus has caused on the activity of companies and the capital importance it has for the sustenance of families. In total, the aids related to the labor field have exceeded 866 million euros, reaching more than half a million workers, self-employed and micro-enterprises and 773 entities and projects of different organizations.

Of this allocation, more than 673 million euros have been allocated to self-employed workers and micro-enterprises, including aid to mitigate the socioeconomic impact of covid-19 and for the maintenance of their activity, for digital transformation and business model, and for maintaining the workforce. In total, the aids have exceeded 343,000 individual beneficiaries and 44 projects.

[pdf-embedder url="https://www.thenewbarcelonapost.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/AJUTS_ESP.pdf"]

Within the 866 million in the labor field, 130 million euros have been allocated to workers affected by a temporary employment regulation file (ERTE) or with a permanent discontinuous contract, including the call for training subsidies to improve their professional profile and the extraordinary aid for the first quarter of 2021. In total, they have benefited nearly 155,000 workers.

On the other hand, more than 6.5 million have been allocated to the 65 Socioeconomic Reactivation Plans to help local entities hire technical staff to promote these projects.

Continuing with aid for work, residence professionals saw their involvement and commitment recognized with an extraordinary payment of 21.3 million euros. In addition, aid has been allocated to promote the social and solidarity economy with the Projectes Singulars, to third sector entities and to special groups such as young self-employed people and domestic workers, exceeding, in total, 700 recipient entities.

Aid to vulnerable groups

The social emergency caused by covid-19 has forced significant efforts. 24 million euros have been allocated to direct aid to face the social crisis. Specifically, 20 million were activated as soon as the pandemic began to offer aid to 100,000 families for basic supplies and four million served to promote initiatives of social entities aimed at preventing the risk of exclusion within the new social reality.

Children and young people have especially suffered the consequences of the pandemic in their daily lives, and to maintain the protective effect at an emotional level and against social exclusion that educational leisure has, more than 8.1 million euros have been allocated in aid for families (during the summer campaign 2020), entities, companies and workers, and for facilities.

In the area of children, to help foster families of minors, 367,000 euros have also been allocated to a supplement for foster care carried out between March 13 and December 31, 2020. 2,626 households that foster in extended family and 796 households in unrelated family have benefited.

Culture workers and territories with special impact

Another group especially affected in the context of the coronavirus are cultural workers. For this reason, the Department has allocated 8.9 million euros in three calls for aid for professional, technical, and teaching staff in the performing arts, visual arts, music, and audiovisual sectors whose activity was interrupted by the pandemic. These aids were created in collaboration with the Department of Culture and have reached 11,800 households.

Finally, other aids have allocated 2.8 million euros specifically to territories affected by perimeter closures: Conca d'Òdena, Segrià, Cerdanya, and Ripollès.