Young people who turn 18 in 2023 can already request a cultural bonus

People born in 2005 – who turn 18 in 2023 – can claim the cultural youth bonus from this Tuesday. It is estimated that around 500,000 young Spaniards will have access to aid of 400 euros, which they can use to acquire and enjoy cultural products, services and activities.

It’s about Second call this initiative of the Ministry of Culture and from which they benefited in their first edition 277,554 young people -less than half of those estimated to be able to benefit-, with a total of 911,267 operations, for a global value of 32.9 million euros. In order to apply, young people must register and complete the application procedure on the program’s website by the following September 30.

18-year-olds are eligible for the program born in Spain, as well as those with legal residency, asylum seekers, temporarily displaced or former guardians. Those who are interested can apply for help procedure in person or through a representative of an adult, for which it is necessary to attach a downloadable representation form on the website, correctly signed by the user and the representative. In these cases, the family book is not a document that accredits representation.

About 3,000 affiliated institutions

There is a measure more than 3000 branches in order to be able to use 400 euros in cultural products or services. Cultural bonus for young people works with voucher card which the user can have virtually on his mobile phone or receive physically at home. The bonus is distributed in three sections promote investment diversification. Thus, 100 euros can be awarded physical products, such as books, newspapers or records; 100 euros for digital products, including digital printing, podcasts or video games; and 200 euros for performance artsuch as theatre, opera, cinema, dance, museums or bullfighting.

In July of last year, the program was launched for the first time for all persons who would turn 18 in 2022. The idea was to ask for 400 euros for consumption. cultural products and services for those young people. However, the measure started with problems in response to the complaints of many applicants, who encountered administrative difficulties in accessing this bonus. In fact, the whole time it was enabled, Culture was forced to make changes like allowing all management to be done through Correos personally and not to force them to have a digital certificate.

Bulls, included in the program

These were not the only criticisms that Minister Miquel Iceta received for this measure, as several economic sectors that were left out of the project requested to enter. In particular, bullfighting, which finally entered the second edition of the bonus since the Supreme Court annulled, for lack of justification, exclusion from the bullfight scope of application. The cultural connection established it they were not eligible bullfighting shows, in addition to sports, procurement of paper products, textbooks, equipment, software, hardware and consumables for computing and electronicsart material, musical instruments, fashion and gastronomy.

The balance made by Culture the first edition was “positive“, noting that the main obligation of the ministry is to “not leave any young person who could access the voucher without knowing about this help”. The figures of that first edition reached a a total of 281,557 young people, which meant that 43.4% of all people of this age either did not apply or did not complete the application process. All in all, there were 376,000 process starts request a voucher on the web, although not all are fulfilled.