The "Bazooka" has been firing for almost two years.

On March 13, 2020, the then finance minister and current chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) unpacked his corona protective shield for the German economy.

Immediate, bridging, November, December, restart aid, restart bonus, KfW loans and the economic stabilization fund: dozens of aid programs have been launched since then and more than 130 billion euros have been paid out.

Among all the instruments, however, there is one that is hardly in demand: the hardship fund of the federal and state governments is proving to be a flop.

Julia Löhr

Business correspondent in Berlin.

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Since March 2021, 1.5 billion euros have been available for companies that fall through the grid of the other aid programs. But the fund, praised by the former Federal Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier (CDU) as “a valuable addition” to the existing aid programs, is apparently not really needed. So far, just under 12 million euros have been paid out, as a survey by the FAZ among the granting offices of the federal states shows. Accordingly, a total of 1,865 applications for the hardship fund have been received so far. Of these, 355 have been approved so far. Most of the applications, 972 in number, were rejected, for example because those affected were entitled to other help or the decline in sales was not due to the corona. In 42 cases, the applicants withdrew their requests for assistance. Almost 500 applications are still being processed.

Hesse stands out among the federal states. More than half of the total applications came from this state alone. The state is also at the top of the list of approved aid with 116 positive decisions and 4.7 million euros paid out. For comparison: the two most economically strong federal states in terms of gross domestic product, North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria, together approved fewer applications and only distributed 911,000 and 1.2 million euros, respectively.

A spokesman for the Hessian State Chancellery writes that "from the beginning, soft criteria were chosen for the design of the hardship fund" in order to support those who were still in need of existence despite the help they received. Rhineland-Palatinate was also comparatively generous with 1.6 million euros paid out, especially when measured against the fact that so far only 14 applications have been approved.

The federal states agree that an increase in the hardship fund is currently not necessary.

They take the manageable demand as a sign that the other programs cover most corona-related needs.

In contrast, satisfaction is not quite as pronounced among the business associations.

In the past few weeks, for example, there have been calls from the trades, but also from fireworks manufacturers, to return to the November and December aid model.

In autumn 2020, the state paid closed businesses up to 75 percent of their previous year's sales.

Because some people were even better off economically than if they had been allowed to receive customers, subsidies for fixed operational costs have been available again since the beginning of 2021.

Business looks to the next prime ministerial conference with concern

Omikron now hangs like a sword of Damocles over the business prospects of the companies. A number of economists have corrected their economic forecasts downwards because of the much more contagious Corona variant. Other countries, where the number of infections has skyrocketed, are foregoing new lockdowns because far fewer infected people have to go to hospital than in previous waves. However, it has not been said whether Germany will remain so relaxed. The hospitality industry and the cultural scene in particular are concerned about January 7th, when the next prime ministerial conference is due to take place.

Even before Christmas, there were calls from the ranks of the Greens to prepare for a lockdown. However, such statements are also controversial within the party. After the vaccination and booster campaign, "in my opinion, large-scale closings must be really well justified as a suitable means," says the party's economic policy spokesman, Dieter Janecek. "Other European countries such as Spain, Italy or Denmark have meanwhile deviated from this path." Even if there are more restrictions, Janecek is in favor of sticking to the existing aid programs. The November and December aid would have caused "considerable problems" in practice.

Reinhard Houben, economic policy spokesman for the FDP, sees it similarly: "Bridging aid IV, which can be applied for by the end of March, includes a fixed cost reimbursement of up to 90 percent," he says. “We should stick with it, especially since the short-time working allowance has also been extended.” The opposition, on the other hand, is putting pressure on expanding aid for the economy. Julia Klöckner (CDU), recently the Union’s economic policy spokeswoman, calls for an adjustment of the rules on compensation for damages “in order to enable greater aid than the bridging aid in individual cases,” she told the FAZ can be absorbed even better during the Christmas business. "The retail sector in particular suffers from 2 G.

The economy sees a need for action not least in the state aid requirements from Brussels.

Companies can currently receive a maximum of 54.5 million euros from all aid programs.

In the third year of the pandemic, larger companies in particular are not lacking much.