Overwhelming Requests for Labour Ministry COVID Funds

When the Labour Ministry opened the applications for December’s COVID funds for small businesses, we applied as Jazz Arts & Communications, a limited company with two employees. Our application number was 1641317.

The company owns the brands Sarah’s Jazz Club and CyprusNewsReport.com which you’re reading right now. We are in the creative arts field.

Sarah’s Jazz Club was opened for just four months in 2020 and not at all in 2021. Our other artistic work was similarly impacted. There is no doubt that our income fell dramatically and for some period during the first lockdown was non-existent.

The applications for December were opened for only around 10 days and we submitted the form before they closed. It was accepted, according to an email we received.

On the day after the submissions closed, we received an email from a noreply email address informing us that the accountant’s confirmation was the incorrect one for the form we had filled in. We had until Monday to send the correct form - it was Saturday.

We managed to send in the correct confirmation and sent it to the email specified. We received an email that the email address was the wrong one and it should go to a different email address. We duly sent the accountant’s confirmation there instead. There was no acknowledgement of receipt.

What followed was three weeks of silence and no funds. This was a different result to the first round of funding when the funds were distributed almost immediately under the emergency circumstances.

Puzzling and hurtful silence

At the beginning of February, we called the Social Insurance department. When we finally managed to get through to someone, she said that the application had been rejected and much-needed funds were simply not going to arrive. There was no email communication or reason why it had been rejected. Another person told us to call the Labour Ministry. Nobody answers the phones there.

Finally, I resorted to Twitter and sent this message:

“Why was COVID application 1641317 rejected? Why is there no help email for applicants’ questions? Why are the expected funds not arriving? Why is there no communication system between the ministry and taxpayers? Why does nobody answer the phones at the Lab. Ministry?”

The answer, received in a few minutes was:

“Emails sent to [email protected] are usually replied to within 5 days and, however demanding due to the overwhelming number of requests, it has proven the most efficient form of communication with the ministry.”

The system is one-way and communication is difficult.

This is not the time for inefficient bureaucratic systems. It is the time for the state to show its worth and function as efficiently as possible.

The state has decreed we cannot work and tied our hands in the name of preventing the spread of COVID. Therefore the state is responsible for providing alternative sources of income in an efficient way.

The last thing we want to do is to rely on state funds but at the moment there is simply no choice.

If an application is accepted then there should be no undue or unfair delaying tactics to obstruct our access to the needed funds. The EU has approved a 1.8 trillion Euro COVID support package which must reach the real economy.

Under the circumstances it could mean the difference between eating and not eating for thousands of employees, ours included.