Icon: enlarge
Economics Minister Peter Altmaier (left) and Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (archive photo)
Photo: Maja Hitij / Getty Images
The aid was announced as generous as it was grandiose: Up to 75 percent of their sales are to be replaced by companies that have to close due to the second lockdown in November, announced Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Economics Minister Peter Altmaier (CDU) two weeks ago.
A fitting name for the measure was also quickly found: November aid.
Such a name is both a program and an obligation, because it arouses expectations that the two rescuers had stoked with their announcement, but which increasingly ran the risk of disappointing.
Because the Minister of Economic Affairs, who was responsible for the practical handling, underestimated the complexity of the undertaking, the November aid threatened to flow in December or even later.
In order to save their ten billion euro rescue program, the experts from both ministries have been working feverishly over the past few days to find a solution so that the aid can actually flow in November.
Their result: the state will make an advance payment to needy companies this month.
The program should start on November 27th.
Numerous hurdles
In fact, the implementation of the program is anything but trivial, there are numerous hurdles to be overcome.
The state finds it easier to collect money from companies as part of tax collection than to distribute it to them over a large area.
German federalism is having a braking effect.
The federal states and their development banks are responsible for paying out the aid.
Having experienced significant abuse of some aid programs at the start of the crisis, they have now become cautious.
The applications are checked accordingly carefully.
In addition, the support portals of the development banks, through which the applications for the November aid are submitted and through which the bridging aid was previously processed, must be reprogrammed for the new instrument.
The biggest obstacle so far has been that the companies concerned have to provide "low-threshold" evidence, as it is called, that they are in need.
In plain language: You should be able to demonstrate without much effort that, firstly, they actually exist and, secondly, that they really need money.
Many companies also need a tax advisor to apply for help.
They are currently well booked and therefore difficult to get.
The payments on account are also intended to remedy this problem.
If it later turns out that the aid was unjustified, it must be repaid, according to the ministries.
At the moment, one thing counts above all for Scholz and Altmaier: speed.
Accuracy comes later.
Icon: The mirror
