"Krone" ombudswoman

Funding for bathrooms in negative “record time”

A Carinthian woman has applied for a grant for a barrier-free bathroom.(Bild: manassanant - stock.adobe.com)

The Carinthian state government apparently has a backlog of applications to clear. An 83-year-old woman has finally received her money with the help of the ombudswoman.

Hannelore T. submitted her application to the provincial government back in November 2022. It was for funding for the barrier-free conversion of her bathroom. This had become necessary due to an operation. It initially took until August 2023 to receive written confirmation.

5300 euros were approved. "Since then, we have been calling again and again to ask when the money will actually be paid out," explains the Carinthian woman's daughter. She wonders in what period of time urgently needed subsidies are actually paid out by the state government.

Digitalization should help
Due to the great interest and the abundance of applications, the responsible office is unfortunately currently behind schedule with the final settlements of the renovation applications, the office informed us on request. They are trying to reduce this backlog and are working on a digitization process that should be completed shortly. In the case of Ms. T., a final technical settlement was made in March 2024 based on the invoices submitted in December 2023 and the file was forwarded for final technical settlement.

That sounds a bit complicated. Could this be due to the fact that digitization has not yet taken place? Ms T. and her daughter certainly have the data in black and white. "We sent the billing sheet and invoices at the end of January 2023, not in December 2023," they say. In April 2024, payment was promised by telephone within a few weeks. However, as these words were not followed by action until August, they finally contacted us.

Duration of almost two years
Almost two years after the application was submitted, it now looks as if there is an end. A few days ago, we received a letter from the Carinthian state government with a one-off grant of just under 3,600 euros. At last.