Greece Approves 5,000 Euro Handouts for Fire Victims

The Greek government unveiled on Wednesday a set of measures for fire victims after a crisis meeting chaired by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

According to government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos the measures are grouped into three categories:

A) Measures for the immediate help of fire victims. They include a 5,000 euro ($5,870) benefit for families and individuals hurt by the fire and 6,000 euros for families with three children or more.

For businesses that suffered damages, there will be a benefit of 8,000 euros.

There are also measures of



immediate tax relief, such as the dropping of the ENFIA tax bill for homes that have been destroyed.

B) Measures for the families of the victims.

C) Measures to restore damages suffered by private individuals and for municipalities.

Measures also include the freezing of forced home sales until the end of September, the provision of a 1,200 euro benefit to families to cover telecommunication needs (regardless of which phone company they are with) and the writing off of car registrations so that owners are not forced to pay taxes on vehicles that were destroyed in the fires.