Banks approved deferral applications on more than 180,000 mortgage loans during the first wave of the pandemic. The purpose of the deferrals was to prevent defaults among borrowers whose jobs or businesses had been disrupted by government-ordered restrictions. The deferral period runs out at the beginning of November, just in time for new government measures shutting down large portions of economic activity in the country. This reality has led labor offices to add mortgage assistance to the forms it’s providing to people who are asking for emergency support from the state. Hospodarske noviny says the conditions for support have been loosened to such an extent that people in the middle class are now eligible for support. To qualify, applicants must be able to prove that their income was negatively impacted by the pandemic and that this is the reason they are now in economic distress. In deciding who to help, labor offices will consider only the current income of the applicants, not their physical assets such as automobiles or real estate.
