Government grants 6 million francs from the crisis fund to temporarily secure the livelihoods of cultural professionals during the coronavirus crisis

The Government has approved payment of daily allowances amounting to a maximum of 6 million francs in total to secure the livelihoods of cultural professionals. The “Basel Model” for supporting cultural professionals during the coronavirus crisis is less complex than the federal regulation, both for applicants and for the administration. Along with self-employed cultural professionals, it also includes freelance cultural professionals who have frequently changing, short-term work and who have so far slipped through the net of the support measures. The daily allowances are planned for the period from November 2020 until April 2021, during which cultural professionals have been and continue to be unable to work because of the measures ordered by the authorities to contain the spread of coronavirus.

A complement to the federal measures for cultural enterprises
The "Basel Model” complements the federal measures for alleviating the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic for cultural enterprises (juristic persons). The loss of income compensation for cultural enterprises and the support for transformation projects will continue to be implemented in accordance with the federal regulation. A total of 125 applications for loss of income compensation from cultural enterprises and 10 applications for contributions to transformation projects for the November and December 2020 period had been received by 31 January 2021. As a complement to these federal measures, the objective of temporarily securing the livelihood of cultural professionals is to prevent lasting damage to Basel’s cultural landscape and to preserve cultural diversity. President of the Government Beat Jans: “Federal assistance takes too long to process and excludes many cultural professionals whose economic existence is under threat. The Basel Model offers rapid assistance to these people.”

The “Basel Model” for securing the livelihoods of cultural professionals
Self-employed and freelance cultural professionals have been particularly hard-hit by the effects of the pandemic. Since hardly any cultural events are planned at the moment, it is very difficult or even impossible for cultural professionals to prove losses in income due to cancellations. Because of the very low average income and the high proportion of atypical employment relationships in the cultural sector, the Government has decided to temporarily grant a daily allowance to secure livelihoods. The assistance is financed from the fund for tackling unemployment (crisis fund) and will be covered by funds that were already reserved for measures in the cultural sector.

Payment of daily allowances for a period of six months
The payment of daily allowances amounting to 98 francs per day to cultural professionals takes account of how life has been changed by the Covid-19 pandemic. The measure aims to alleviate the consequences of unemployment in the cultural sector. Cultural professionals who are resident in Basel-Stadt on 1 February 2021 are entitled to contributions. The support covers both self-employed and freelance cultural professionals. These could be, for example, ad hoc technicians or cultural mediators, or freelance actors who are employed by theatres on a project-by-project basis. The daily allowance payment is made in addition to all other income or replacement income. Coronavirus loss of earnings compensation, short-time working compensation and income from existing engagements (e.g. fees for sound recordings) are deducted. An allowance of 1,250 francs per month per dependent child living in the same household is granted to secure the livelihood of families, provided that this is necessary for doing so.

Please note:

Applications for daily allowances for securing the livelihood of cultural professionals must be submitted by 31 May 2021 at the latest. The applications portal of the website of the Division of Cultural Affairs is expected to go live in ten days. 
https://www.kultur.bs.ch/covid-19.html