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Published Wednesday, April 22,
2020
Only 7.5% of the aid
bonusapplicants can be paid Since April 9 the popular Bono Proteger has had 438,679 people apply for the benefit. However, the government announced that only 7.5% of applicants will get the monetary aid. The so-called “Bono Proteger” is a monetary aid for people affected at their place of employment by the suspension of commercial operations imposed by the government as part of the precautionary measures to contain the expansion of covid-19. The financial support package can be requested at proteger.go.cr, a web platform created for citizens and residents to request financial help from the government due to the covid-19 emergency. According to the government statement, 33,000 people have been selected, an equivalent to 7.5% of the total number of people who applied for the aid. According to the statistics provided by the ministry, of the total applications (438,679) for the extra financial help, 226,483 are men and 212,196 women. Applications have been generated from all 7 provinces of the country, the majority 153,300 in San Jose province. The 7.5 % selected, approximately 33,000 people will receive the financial support package, as part of a fund of ₡16 billion colones or $28,270,432, during the first phase of this aid program. Meanwhile the government waits for the approval of an extra budget by the deputies of the Legislative Assembly. This will be the second stage of monetary aid expected to cover the approved beneficiaries from the rest of requests. "Now we are entering a second stage in which we require the approval of the extra budget presented by the government to cover all the people we have who qualify to receive the Bono Proteger," said Geannina Dinarte-Romero, Minister of Labor and Social Security. According to the statistics provided by the government, after this financial aid was announced by President Carlos Alvarado, the site Proteger received a total of 1,726,953 visits. According to Dinarte, on the first day the website was made public it crashed because of high traffic. After solving the problem, the site hasn’t had any problems. The government allocated ₡296 billion colones, approximately $523,002,992 to grant subsidies of between ₡62,500 and ₡125,000 colones or between $110 to $220 for laid-off workers and those whose working hours were reduced or contracts suspended, due to the coronavirus emergency. The monetary aid will be paid to the beneficiaries for three months. The authorities of the Ministry of Labor alerted the public about people who have wanted to take advantage of the bonus. One of the scams is to charge those that need help navigating the site and applying. The application process is free. It does not require intermediaries, and it does not require presenting documents authenticated by lawyers. The ministry announced that it is in the process of investigating the origin of the alleged crooked intermediaries that charge for application assistance. --------------------- Is the government in your country offering some sort of financial support package to those unemployed as a result of the pandemic? We would like to know your thoughts on this story. Send your comments to news@amcostarica.com |
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