Mountainous and Disadvantaged Areas Benefit
The benefit for residents of mountainous and disadvantaged areas is part of social protection measures for vulnerable groups. It is intended to support low-income families and help prevent the depopulation of entire villages in mountainous and disadvantaged areas. The classification of areas as mountainous or disadvantaged is provided for by EU law and is based on European Union directives.
The income support amount is:
(A) €600 per year, if the beneficiaries’ annual family income does not exceed €3,000;
(B) €300 per year, if the beneficiaries’ annual family income is between €3,000.01 and €4,700.
Eligibility requirements for the annual income support:
- Family members must have lived permanently in a mountainous or disadvantaged area for at least two (2) years before the application is submitted.
- Annual family income must not exceed €4,700.
The key unit for granting income support is the family, including single-parent families, not the household.
“ Family ” means a couple in a legal marriage or cohabitation agreement, together with their unmarried minor children who live with them in the same home.
A single-parent family is a family consisting of one parent (unmarried, widowed, separated, divorced, or where the other parent is detained in a correctional facility, or in similar circumstances) who has exclusive custody, or has been assigned custody by a court decision, notarial deed or mediation agreement under applicable law, whether temporary or permanent, of one or more unmarried minor children.
Children are considered to be those who, in the year the application is submitted, turn 18th year of age.
Digital platform
External service
Application for mountainous and disadvantaged areas
Go to the new digital platform for the benefit.
NOTE: “ mountainous areas means areas included in the TABLE OF MOUNTAIN MUNICIPALITIES AND COMMUNITIES under Directive 81/645/EEC, as amended by European Commission Decision 83/339/EEC, Directives 85/148/EEC, 89/588/EEC and 93/66/EEC, and European Commission Decision 94/516/EC.
“ disadvantaged areas for 2019 means areas included in the TABLE OF DISADVANTAGED AREAS under Directive 81/645/EEC, as amended by European Commission Decision 83/339/EEC, Directives 85/148/EEC, 89/588/EEC and 93/66/EEC, and European Commission Decision 94/516/EC.
For 2020 and later years, this means areas with significant natural constraints and areas with specific constraints, as defined in the relevant annexes to the “Rural Development Programme of Greece”.
