Corona aid stopped: It can take days for money to flow again

The Federal Ministry of Economics has stopped paying out the corona aid at short notice.

Numerous politicians are now pressing for a quick correction.

Berlin - After the payment stop for Corona aid for German companies, it can still take several days for payments to start again.

The advance payments, which had been stopped as a precautionary measure because of the suspicion of fraud, would start again "in the next few days," said a spokesman for the Ministry of Economic Affairs on Wednesday.

He did not give specific details about the fraud and the amount of damage.

The Ministry of Economic Affairs had previously announced that there was “in some cases” the suspicion that government aid funds were illegally obtained.

This involves down payments, so to speak advances on state aid, and regular payments.

"It is a shame and regrettable that attempts are being made here to exploit the plight of our companies in the corona crisis," it said.

Corona aid: Fraudsters outsmart the system

According to media reports, strangers with false identities are said to have registered with the Ministry of Economic Affairs as checking third parties and then applied for help for real companies.

However, the money did not flow there, but into the accounts of the fraudsters.

The ministry switched on the public prosecutor's office and initially stopped the advance payments.

However, the regular payouts of the November and December aid continued, it said.

The applications for this are checked and approved in the federal states.

Corona aid: FDP demands immediate payment

Demands came from different political directions to pay the companies back as soon as possible.

“The cases of fraud must be resolved quickly.

Nevertheless, the ministry cannot simply stop the payment of the corona aid, ”said FDP parliamentary group vice-president Christian Dürr.

The ministry must immediately resume the payment and close the gaps in the system so that honest entrepreneurs and self-employed get their support.

Lower Saxony's Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD) emphasized: "A complete stop of the advance payments punishes the wrong people." Many people had been waiting for the November and December aid and the bridging aid III for months.

"I call on the Federal Ministry of Economics and Minister Peter Altmaier to ensure that the long overdue payment of economic aid is resumed very quickly," he said.

The Greens MP Claudia Müller criticized errors in the system: Even in the economic committee of the Bundestag it had been declared that payments on account could only go to account numbers that were known to the tax offices.

Apparently that didn't work.

Corona aid: Ministry of Economic Affairs rejects allegations

The ministry denied the allegations.

There are various steps to verify identity, including an automatic data comparison with the tax office.

These measures make it noticeable if the same advance amount or the same name often appears in the system.

But you can never completely rule out that security precautions are bypassed.

In addition, 96 percent of the advance payments have already been paid out for the November and December aid.

This primarily affects so-called bridging aid III.

It has been possible to apply for it since February 10th, and advance payments of more than 650.7 million euros had been paid by the end of last week.

(dpa / utz)