Payments from August – Schedule: Relief Package comes in three phases

• Especially groups that have to deal with inflation (eg minimum pensioners and recipients of student grants) receive 300 euros in the summer.
• In August, families receive an extra 180 euros per child as “special child benefit”.
• The “Family Bonus Plus” will be increased, up to 2000 euros can now be claimed for the 2022 employee tax assessment.

Second phase from October
In addition, the residential screen, which should protect against evictions, will be enlarged. An additional 60 million euros will be added to the measure, which will help people who have incurred rent arrears during the pandemic. In the second phase in the autumn, the general public, which is now clearly feeling the effects of inflation, will be relieved.

• Each adult Austrian receives 500 euros (250 euros climate bonus and 250 euros inflation bonus).
• Payment starts in October. Children get half.

Additional measures are included in the package. For example, farms must receive a supply bonus before the end of the year. Each company receives an average of 1000 euros. The third phase of the package early next year will bring structural relief. On the one hand, the cold progression must be abolished. Cold progression means people who get pay rises can still afford less – because of inflation and because they’re moving into a higher tax bracket. To prevent this, two-thirds of tax brackets will be adjusted to inflation in the future.

Value adjustment for social benefits
Furthermore, social benefits such as child benefit, sick pay or study allowances must be adjusted to the depreciation of the currency. This should increase the purchasing power of those affected. The economy has also been relieved: there will be compensation for electricity prices, a tax-free and tax-free employee bonus of 3,000 euros and a direct subsidy for energy-intensive companies.

ÖVP club chairman August Wöginger and his Green colleague Sigrid Maurer again praised the government package on Wednesday after the cabinet meeting and outlined the roadmap. To ensure that the measures are published in the Federal Government Gazette by 30 June at the latest, the special session of the National Council on Thursday is necessary. Part of the package was ready for a decision in the budget committee on Tuesday evening, but the draft only got the votes of the ÖVP and the Greens. Wöginger criticized the opposition groups’ no in the budget committee: “This is very surprising to us, because points have been identified that will help quickly”.

SPÖ wants rent and price ceilings
The deputy head of the SPÖ club, Jörg Leichtfried, again campaigned for his group’s anti-inflation package at a press conference, once again criticizing the “inappropriate” measures taken by the ruling parties. As a result, no price goes down, but there are one-off benefits that only the top earners benefit in the long term, says Leichtfried. Instead, the government should immediately limit rents and other prices.

NEOS deputy club boss Nikolaus Scherak gave journalists a basically positive assessment that something was amiss on the inflation front, but he accused the government of going ahead with the watering can. He welcomed the announced indexation of social benefits and individual measures for low earners. When the cold progression was abolished, Scherak demanded that it be done completely and also retroactively for the whole year. The NEOS wants to table a corresponding motion for a resolution in the special session.