From March 2020 to September 2021, companies have been reimbursed almost €23.6 billion in wage costs through the Temporary Emergency Bridging Measure for Employment (NOW). In addition, slightly less than €7.4 billion in fixed costs was reimbursed under the Allowance for Entrepreneurs Affected Sectors (TOGS) and Compensation for Fixed Costs (TVL) schemes.
In a year and a half, the catering industry received the largest amount of support from both the NOW and the TOGS/TVL schemes. Within the catering industry, restaurants received by far the most corona support, followed by hotel restaurants and cafes. The trade also made a major appeal to the support with approximately €5 billion, the wholesale sector received the largest part of it. In addition, rental and other business services, transport and storage, and industry each received more than €3 billion from the total support package.
Big business
Most aid to compensate for wage costs has gone to large companies. Large companies are companies with 250 or more employees, which potentially also have the highest wage costs. Almost three quarters of the total amount went to the hospitality, trade, rental, transport and industrial sectors.
Of the allowance for fixed costs, 39% went to small companies with 2 to 9 employees. This share was highest in agriculture (69%). After that, medium-sized companies up to 50 employees received the most support (31%). In the hospitality industry in particular, a relatively large amount of money went to medium-sized companies (42%).
Incidentally, up to and including the fourth quarter of 2020, only SME entrepreneurs could claim compensation for their fixed costs via the TVL scheme, after which this was also open to larger companies.
Reopened
Due to the lockdown in December 2021, the economic support packages have been reopened to offer workers and entrepreneurs support and security again. As of mid-January 2022, a compensation of approximately €750 million has been granted from the NOW-5 scheme. In addition, approximately €350 million has been allocated from the TVL-Q4-2021 scheme as of mid-January 2022.