A so-called fødevarecheck or “food voucher” will be made available to eligible vulnerable groups, Finance Minister Nicolai Wammen said on Thursday.
“This is for the many Danes who are in a difficult situation at the moment. We want to give them a helping hand,” Wammen told broadcaster TV2.
The assistance will not be in the form of a check or voucher as the name suggests, but will consist of a single cash payout to eligible individuals.
People receiving the state pension with no additional savings, low income households with children and people not on the labour market are among those likely to qualify.
Specifics of the scheme will be ironed out through negotiations between the government and other parties in parliament over a final agreement.
“The food voucher will be designed to help those who have the least, because they’re the ones who are hardest-hit at the supermarket,” Wammen told news wire Ritzau.
High food prices have become a growing political issue in Denmark with the opposition and even part of the coalition government calling for VAT on food to be scrapped.
The Social Democrats, the senior party in the coalition, says this is not possible in time for this year’s general elections because of the technical difficulties involved in implementing it.
READ ALSO: No reduction on Danish food VAT before next election
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a New Year speech that the government planned cash relief to those worst affected by inflation on food, however.
The leader of the opposition centre-left party SF, Pia Olsen Dyhr, said on Thursday that “poor pensioners and people on social welfare” should be the target group for the support.
“I’m certainly interested in getting this to the people who have the least. I don’t think everyone in Denmark needs a food voucher,” she told TV2.
Wammen said he is not yet able to give specifics on the amounts which could be paid out.
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