‘Stress-Free’: Coronavirus Aid Flows Quickly to Berlin’s Self-Employed

“It would have been easier if they had just given us ‘helicopter money’ — all small businesses get a set amount,” Mr. Mansfeld said in a telephone interview.

That suggestion resembles the stimulus plan adopted by Congress and President Trump, which includes checks, typically $1,200, for most American adults, and expanded jobless benefits, including payments available to freelancers and gig workers, who ordinarily would not qualify.

Authorities in Berlin, mindful of the role that entrepreneurs and freelancers in the arts and other creative sectors play in the city-state’s economy, were among the first in Germany to pledge financial assistance to them.

They also streamlined applications and approvals, requesting only that applicants be honest and simply checking their tax identification number and a few other basic facts rather than verifying all the information before making payments. But they warned that anyone later determined to have submitted a false claim would have to repay the money.

“Berlin is lively and great, thank in no small part to the commitments of its artists in all creative areas,” Klaus Lederer, the city’s minister for culture, said after the local government had passed legislation to provide the relief. “The cancellation of countless cultural events and the closure of venues triggered by the corona pandemic is an existential threat to many of them.”

He pledged that the process would be easy and move quickly, in part to ensure that anyone needing to pay their rent for April would have money to do so.

Mr. Bostedt, 29, was in that position. With the shutdowns, the extra jobs he’d take on to make ends meet when things got tight, including setting up trade fairs or working in restaurants, also dried up.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/03/world/europe/coronavirus-Berlin-self-employed.html