Elderly residents in private and public homes will receive a €100 contribution if they do not apply for the government vouchers, Minister for the Economy and Industry Silvio Schembri announced.
Applications for the digital €100 government vouchers, which will cover restaurants, accommodation, retail and service, are open for anyone until 4 June at midnight.
Elderly citizens living in private and public care homes will also have the opportunity to download the vouchers online; however, if they fail to do so or are unable to, they will automatically receive a €100 cash contribution instead.
Schembri said that this option was made available since many elderly citizens in homes felt that the use of vouchers was limited, as they are confined by restrictions or their health conditions to their homes.
The €100 cash contribution will be given either through a direct bank transaction to one's bank account or a government cheque delivered to the respective elderly homes.
This has been made possible in collaboration with the Ministry for Social Justice and Solidarity, the Family and Children's Rights, as well as the Ministry for Senior Citizens and Active Ageing, Schembri said.
He stressed that the public should favour digital vouchers rather than physical vouchers, as vouchers will be kept secure in one location and will be easily transferrable.
For those who do not register digitally for the vouchers, physical vouchers will be delivered to one's respective residences after the 7 June.
To date, 81,103 vouchers have been downloaded online, 72% of which were by using one's E-ID and 28% of which were through using personal identification.
1,594 attempts to download the vouchers online were rejected, due to either adolescents under the age of 16 attempting to download the vouchers, or the ID of the individuals did not match with the application.
53% of applicants were male, while 47% of applicants were female.
93% of the applicants were Maltese residents, while 7% were Gozitan residents.
Businesses who wish to benefit from the vouchers will need to apply for an activation code to verify that they are an eligible business, and must ensure that the VAT receipt is kept with the digital voucher serial number written at the back of the respective receipt.
Should their vouchers be physical instead of digital, the business should keep the voucher alongside the respective VAT receipt.
This will ensure that the transaction will be completed, Schembri said.
Taking questions from this newsroom, Schembri confirmed that there is no way to redeem vouchers that are physically lost.
"Losing a voucher is equivalent to losing money", he said. "This is why it is important to go digital, because you'll never lose the voucher".
Upon being asked which businesses are eligible to receive the government vouchers, Schembri said that those negotiations which have been affected by legal notice 76 and 95 will be eligible for the vouchers. These refer to around 25,000 businesses that have had to close during the pandemic.
Many of these businesses benefitted from the vouchers last year and are encouraged to apply for an application code in the next few days if they have not benefitted from the vouchers yet.
Photo: Miguela Xuereb - Newsbook