Brief description of the program entitled “Support measures for young people aged eighteen (18) and nineteen (19)” (“Youth Pass”)

The object of the “YOUTH PASS” project is to provide financial assistance, derived from the state budget, to young people aged eighteen (18) and nineteen (19), in the form of a digital debit card, for making purchases or receiving services from businesses that are active in the fields of culture, tourism and transport. This financial assistance amounts to one hundred and fifty (150) euro and it shall be provided from the year 2023 onwards, as set out in Article 47(1) of Law 5045/2023. 5045/2023.

The beneficiaries of the financial assistance are any natural persons who are tax residents of Greece and who turned eighteen (18) or nineteen (19) years old within the year preceding their application, but who have not yet turned twenty (20) years old or older within the year preceding the application.

The financial assistance is credited to the beneficiary by Information Society S.A. (IS S.A.), using a special app of the Single Digital Portal of the Public Administration created by IS S.A., to a digital debit card issued specifically for this purpose by a credit or financial institution, within the meaning of Article 3(2) and (3) of Law 4557/2018 (Α 139).

What is the object of the project?

The project’s object is to design and develop the System that will support the provision of the financial assistance, amounting to one hundred and fifty (150) euro, from the state budget, to young people aged eighteen (18) and nineteen (19). Following are some of the items included by the system to be implemented:

• Beneficiaries will use the system to submit an application until the date specified in the Joint Ministerial Decision of the Programme, as provided for in Article 47(12) of Law 5045/2023 (Α 136).
• Beneficiaries shall enter the special system app, accessible through the Single Digital Portal of the Public Administration (gov.gr-SDP) upon authentication using the passwords – credentials (taxisnet) of the General Secretariat of Information Systems for Public Administration (GSISPA), in accordance with Article 24 of Law 4727/2020 (Α 184).
• Upon entering the app, beneficiaries will fill in their contact details in the corresponding fields, particularly their e-mail address and mobile phone number, the credit institution of their choice for the issuance of the digital debit card, and they will request the issuance of the digital debit card and the crediting of the relevant amount.
• The special app will be receiving applications by interested parties from April 1st to May 15th each year. In particular, during the first year of operation and for beneficiaries who turned 18 or 19 in 2022, the special app will be receiving their applications from November 9th to December 5th, 2023. Following the lapse of the application period, the app will export a file that will be sent to the collaborating banking institutions, in order to credit the aid to the digital debit card.
• The application may only be submitted once and it may not be re-submitted after the beneficiary reaches the age of 19. Payments to the beneficiaries for the following year will be carried out automatically, upon reviewing the conditions of Article 47(2) of Law 5045/2023 (A 136); the aid will be sent to the banking institutions to be credited on the digital debit cards once per year, until May 31st of each year. Specifically for the first implementation within 2023, the above crediting will take place by December 10th, 2023.
• The beneficiary’s digital debit card shall remain active for two (2) years starting on the month following its issuance; after this period has elapsed, the credit or financial institution must deactivate it without delay. Any remaining balance of the financial aid will be reimbursed to the Hellenic State, whereupon the beneficiary may not claim it anymore.