More than 145,000 young people between the ages of 18 and 19 will receive financial aid of 150 euros this year under Youth Pass 2024. More specifically, 69,825 young people under the age of 18 submitted applications for this purpose by 15 May 2024 which was set as a deadline. The relevant aid costs amounted to 10,473,750 euros. In addition, 75,863 young people aged 19, who already applied in the previous year, shall automatically receive the same aid. This means that the total aid amounts to 11,379,450 euros. During the first year of implementation of the program, by the end of 2023, some 140,000 young people received aid totalling almost 21 million euros.

The Minister for National Economy and Finance Kostis Chatzidakis, the Minister for the Interior Niki Kerameos, the Minister for Digital Governance Dimitris Papastergiou and the Deputy Minister for National Economy and Finance Thanos Petralias are responsible for the design and implementation of the Youth Pass in accordance with the relevant Joint Ministerial Decision (Government Gazette, Series II, No 5420/14.9.2023).

Procedure for the credit of the aid

The aid of 150 euros is credited in the form of a digital debit card, which will be sent to credit institutions by Friday 31 May. It is noted that there may be a delay of 1-2 working days until the beneficiaries receive the aid. The credit institution or financial institution shall inform the beneficiary of the first activation of the card and the credit of the relevant aid amount via a text message (sms) or e-mail which will contain a link for the activation of the digital debit card.

Then the beneficiaries may use the amount of aid to purchase goods or services from undertakings operating in sectors related to tourism (e.g. tourist accommodation), culture (e.g. attending theater performances or concerts, buying books, etc.) and transport (taxis, buses, trains, ferry/air tickets or car/yacht rentals, etc.). More specifically, the digital debit card can be used to make purchases or receive services in the following business categories:

It is recalled that Youth Pass is a permanent measure to help young people. In this context, the special app https://vouchers.gov.gr/youthpass will be receiving applications by interested parties from 1 April to 15 May each year. The aid for all beneficiaries will be paid annually until 31 May.

The beneficiaries of the Youth Pass are:

• tax residents of Greece
• who have completed the 18th or 19th year of age within the year preceding the application and
• submit an application on the platform.

It is stressed that there are no property or income criteria.

The application may only be submitted once and it may not be re-submitted after the beneficiary reaches the age of 19. However, if for any reason, a young person does not submit an application at the age of 18, submission is also acceptable at the age of 19. Nevertheless, in this case, the person shall receive aid only for the second year and not retrospectively.

The Youth Pass action is implemented by “Information Society”(IS SMSA) and is funded from the Regular Budget. The platform was developed by the National Infrastructures for Research and Technology (EDYTE SA – GRNET), a supervised body of the Ministry of Digital Governance, in cooperation with the Secretariat-General for Information Systems and Digital Governance.