Minimum guaranteed income in two areas from January
The ministries of Finance and Labor avoided issuing any details on Wednesday regarding the implementation of the European Union plan for the pilot application of the minimum guaranteed income in Greece.
Labor Minister Yiannis Vroutsis did however say that the pilot application will start on January 1, 2014, in two areas of the country, with the aim being to expand the scheme to the whole of Greece as of 2015. He stopped short of saying which areas those would be, pending the completion of a related study.
The scheme, aimed at “people living in conditions of great poverty,” will receive 20 million euros in funding from the expected primary surplus of the 2013 budget. Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras noted that “this is a small but important step” and said that those in need of the minimum income must be fully recorded first.
The Communist Party (KKE) stated on Wednesday that the measure amounts to “peanuts” and is aimed at fooling people and manipulating public opinion.
