Government starts distributing the 'social dividend'

The social dividend – a section of Greece's primary surplus returned to the more vulnerable groups in society as a one-off benefit – was credited on Friday to the bank accounts of those who had filed an application by May 3.

The first batch of the dividend, amounting to 133.2 million euros, was allocated to 205,912 applicants. More payments will follow, depending on the date that those eligible for the social dividend had filed their applications.

After the money had been paid out, there have been certain cases of banks confiscating the deposited amount due to beneficiaries’ debts owed to the lenders. This practice is against the law, since the dividend cannot be taxed, seized or offset with debts to the state. As soon as those incidents were made known, Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras and Alternate Finance Minister Christos Staikouras contacted the Hellenic Bank Association and asked that the relevant legislation is fully applied.

According to Finance Ministry data on the first batch, the average social dividend per beneficiary amounts to about 647 euros. Almost half of the applicants that received it (47.9 percent) are single, widowed or divorced, while 35.6 percent of those are married and have up to two children.

Another 62,000 applications submitted by May 3 are being considered.

Between May 4 and 8, another 68,000 applications were filed. The deadline for electronic applications is June 30.

The Finance Ministry also announced that the one-off financial support, amounting to about 35 million euros, was allocated to 75,428 uniformed personnel.