Benidorm pumped 500,000 euros more to aid families due to Covid-19 to meet pending requests

Benidorm City Council is going to pumped an additional 500,000 euros into municipal aid to families, focused on mitigating the economic and social effects derived from the Covid-19 crisis, to meet pending requests for resolution. This has been announced today by the mayor, Toni Pérez, after informing that "as of today we have practically used up the 1.4 million euros that we allocate to this aid, which has already reached more than 1,600 people."

The mayor recalled that those 1.4 million euros correspond to 20% of the surplus for 2019, the maximum percentage that the Government of Spain has allowed the City Councils to allocate to measures related to the coronavirus crisis, and that “we, From minute zero we had the conviction and commitment that these aid should be used for families in Benidorm, to inject economy into homes ”.

Specifically, to date 1,436 grants have been granted and 182 appeals have been resolved favorably, adding a total amount of 1,394,100 euros, which leaves "a remainder of 5,900 euros" of the amount initially reserved. An insufficient remainder to meet pending requests, which has led the "local government to promote a budget modification, which has been signed today, to inject an extraordinary 500,000 euros from current resources of the 2020 budget."

Toni Pérez has advanced that it is the first extraordinary economic injection for these aid, since it is estimated that another 500,000 euros will be needed that will be allocated soon and that will leave the municipal investment in these aid at 2.4 million euros and around than 4,000 families served.

The mayor has asked "apologies to the beneficiaries of these grants for the delay in the procedure", although he has launched a "message of hope" since "this City Council will respond to all requests and will do everything possible and impossible without sparing efforts and resources so that all the requests that fulfill the requirements see these aid satisfied within this year ”. He also recalled that municipal aid to companies, businesses, SMEs and the self-employed is already being resolved and paid, for which 1.5 million euros have already been enabled.

"This City Council - he has stated - is not going to do like other administrations, which have launched calls and then send a letter to the majority of the petitioners to tell them that there is no budget left to meet their request, even if they meet the established requirements and conditions." Something that has already happened with regional aid to companies and SMEs. In this regard, he regretted that many families in Benidorm are still waiting for the Subsistence Income announced at the end of May by the Government of Spain, or even to collect the emplyment regulation order in which they are immersed.