Corona Fund in Lower Austria: Several Million Paid Out

The Corona Fund in Lower Austria has paid out a total of around 4.6 million euros. This means that almost 15 percent of the available sum of 31.3 million euros has been utilized. Payments were made for 6,785 out of 8,734 applications, Regional Councillor Martin Antauer (FPÖ) summarized in a press conference in St. Pölten on Wednesday. He dismissed criticism of the Corona Fund. A commission is now to examine, among other things, whether the funds were disbursed properly.

Corona Fund a "Success Model" for Antauer

Antauer described the fund as a "success model". In 2,368 cases, treatments for psychological or mental disorders or illnesses were supported with a total of over 1.9 million euros. Around 1.3 million euros went to 1,177 people with long-Covid effects. A total of more than 460,000 euros was provided to 1,005 students for tutoring, and 1,188 children and adolescents received around 225,000 euros in support for leisure activities. A total of 181,500 euros was paid out to 153 people with vaccination impairments. Additionally, 480 fines amounting to a total of around 157,000 euros were reimbursed. There was also funding for clubs - here, less than half of the applications were approved or paid out.

The support from the Corona Fund is to be available in a transparency database in the future. According to Antauer, a commission is currently being assembled to check whether the funding criteria were met and the political goal achieved.

"Very, Very Unusual"

Antauer did not have a good word to say about the Federal Court of Audit (RH), which had criticized the fund in a report published in the spring. It was "very, very unusual" to be audited before the end of the payout. "The fund was handled completely correctly," emphasized the regional councilor. The RH report stated, for example, that a "comprehensive comprehensible needs assessment" for the endowment amount was missing. Antauer called it "absurd" that an over-endowment was criticized. Because the remaining amount flows back into the state budget. They consulted with experts and "deliberately endowed generously," but at that time had no comparative values, explained the FPÖ politician. The RH criticized, for example, funding guidelines with a partially "wide scope for interpretation," and the auditors saw a "legally questionable signal effect" in the reimbursement of administrative fines.

The repayment of unconstitutional fines was an important point, said Antauer - because "a constitutional state must not allow injustice to persist." The corona measures policy in this country was a "regime of coercion," the damage "many times greater than the benefit," explained Antauer. Lower Austria was the first federal state to set up a fund for those who "became victims of a wrong policy." The federal government must take responsibility and "restore justice for all people in Austria."

Corona Fund 2023 Established

The black-blue state government established the "NÖ Covid Relief Fund for Corona Consequences" in 2023. In the first phase, fines imposed by Lower Austrian district administrative authorities based on laws later overturned by the Constitutional Court (VfGH) were reimbursed. Then, support could be applied for, among other things, for long-Covid consequences and vaccination impairments. Associations were also supported. The fund was concluded this year on September 1st.

Criticism of the Corona Fund came on Wednesday from the SPÖ Lower Austria. State parliament member Rene Pfister identified "pure waste of taxpayers' money" by the FPÖ in a statement, "and the ÖVP stood by idly." After the closure of the fund, there is now a need for the immediate reintroduction of the school start allowance as well as investments in health, housing, and work.

(APA/Red)

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