The 200 euro check aimed at families with low income and assets has serious problems reaching those who need it. In the Budget Plan for 2024 that the acting Government sent this Sunday to the European Commission, only 333 million are allocated, a quarter of the 1,200 million that was calculated when it was designed. The applications do not reach the Tax Agency offices and, in some cases, are rejected for failing to comply with the requirements.
Only 1.2 million households and 1.7 million people receive the direct aid approved by the Ministry of Finance two years ago. The figures are far from the initial forecasts, since the Tax Agency estimated that the check would reach 6 million beneficiaries and 4.2 million households.
The number of potential beneficiaries was calculated by the Tax Agency with information from the General Treasury of Social Security, the State Public Employment Service (Sepe), the National Institute of Statistics (INE) and the Ministry of the Interior.
It is a check for 200 euros that is paid in a single payment and was launched at the beginning of 2022 to try to help the most vulnerable in the face of rising prices. In the initial hours there was a collapse of the Tax Agency website, but after twenty months in force the income continues to stagnate.
The reasons why the 200 euro check has remained in 2023 for 1.7 million beneficiaries and has not reached the six million potential candidates may be several, as explained by the Treasury. But the main problem seems to be that families do not request it en masse, as would be expected due to inflation.
The Tax Agency simplified the procedures so that the aid was as accessible as possible. It even launched several advertising campaigns in conventional and other specific formats, such as social networks, so that the information reached a greater number of potential beneficiaries. There was a forecast that demand would be close to half of the initial forecasts. But the measures have not had the desired effect.
Beneficiaries of the minimum vital income and pensioners are excluded from the 200 euro aid, and this is also causing the Treasury to reject some applications. Requests in which the total amount of income received by the cohabitants in the home in 2022 exceeds 27,000 euros are also rejected.
