This year’s end-of-the-year “social dividend” will reach 710 million euros, Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos said from Greece’s Parliament on Wednesday.
He added that whatever one-off welfare benefits doled out next month will be exempt from seizures – more arrears to the tax bureau, social security funds etc.
Moreover, he said income and asset criteria for eligibility will be stipulated with a forthcoming ministerial decision, with reports saying the criteria will probably be the same as last year.
The Tsipras government has exceeded primary budget surplus targets, as mandated by creditors, over the past three years, mainly on the back of a “tax tsunami” unleashed in 2016. Cutting back on other state spending and more effective measures to combat tax-evasion have also filled the once empty Greek state coffers, but with punishing consequences for the country’s middle classes.
The latest round of welfare spending will again be directed as low income socio-economic groups.
