Virginia Barcones reminds young people born in 2005 that this Saturday ends the deadline to apply for the Young Cultural Bonus

• The Government delegate in Castilla y León has reminded you that by applying for the Voucher before that date you have 400 euros to invest in cultural products and activities • In https://bonoculturajoven.gob.es the application can be made and once granted there is a period of 12 months to invest it • Until September 23, 57.8% of the 21,254 potential beneficiaries of Castilla y León have applied for it • The province of Palencia has the highest percentage number of applications, exceeding 64%

September 25, 2023.- The delegate of the Government in Castilla y León, Virginia Barcones, recalled this morning in Palencia to all young people who reach the age of 18 in 2023 that this Saturday, September 30, ends the application period to obtain the Young Cultural Bonus. He recalled that this is a very simple process, it is enough to have been born in 2005 and apply for this Bonus to get the 400 euros and enjoy cultural products and activities.

Virginia Barcones has visited the Higher Technical School of Agricultural Engineering of the Palencia Campus of the University of Valladolid, where she has had a meeting with students born in 2005 in the auditorium. During that meeting he was accompanied by the deputy delegate of the Government in Palencia, Ángel Domingo Miguel Gutiérrez, and the vice-rector of the Campus, Amalia Rodríguez González.

During her meeting in Palencia with the students, Virginia Barcones reminded the young people who turn 18 in 2023 that they can still obtain the Young Cultural Bonus granted by the Ministry of Culture and Sport. However, he has stressed that they cannot be laid off for much longer because the deadline for requesting it ends on Saturday, September 30.

The delegate of the Government explained that by enrolling in this program of the Young Cultural Bond those who reach the age of majority during this year, whether students or not, get 400 euros to acquire and enjoy cultural products and activities just because they were born in 2005.

This is already the second edition of a program launched by the Government of Spain in 2022. The more than 500,000 young people who in 2023 turn eighteen in Spain, 21,254 in Castilla y León and 1,304 in Palencia, are potential beneficiaries of this invitation to enter the adult age at the hand of culture.

The Ministry of Culture and Sport has an amount of 8.5 million euros for young people in our Autonomous Community of which 521,600 euros are reserved for young Palentines. “It would be a shame not to take advantage of this opportunity,” said Barcones.

The deadline for applying for this aid was June 13 and, as of September 23, 12,289 young people from Castilla y León had already made the application, which represents 57.8% of the total number of potential beneficiaries. “Our goal is that there is not a single Bonus left to apply for,” explained the delegate.

In Palencia, of 1,304 possible beneficiaries, 839 have requested it, which represents 64.4%. In this sense, Palencia is the province that has the highest percentage of requests made. It is above Valladolid, which with 62.3% has the second best percentage, followed by Burgos (60.95%) and Salamanca (58.62%).

FEATURES

Barcones has indicated that young people should know that these 400 euros can be invested for a whole year. Young people born in 2005 (who turn 18 in 2023) are entitled to the Young Cultural Voucher. They are both those born in Spain and those who have residency, asylum seekers, temporary displaced persons or young ex-guardians.

The request is made exclusively online, through the website https://bonoculturajoven.gob.es And it is a very simple procedure. The application is much simpler than it was last year to make it easier for young people to apply for help.

The application can be made by the young person or by a person over 18 years of age on his or her behalf. In both cases it is necessary to register on the web with an email (that of the young person) and have a digital certificate or basic or advanced key.

In the event that the request is made by a representative, a model of representation signed by representative and represented must be attached. If not, the request is not valid.

The Bono is an open door to culture in all its extension: books, cinema, theater, opera, online products…

WHAT YOU CAN INVEST IN

The Bonus is divided into three sections to promote access to different cultural expressions:

• 200 euros for live arts, cultural heritage and audiovisual arts. For example, tickets and subscriptions for performing arts, live music, cinema, museums, libraries, exhibitions and scenic, literary, musical or audiovisual festivals and bullfighting shows.
• 100 euros for cultural products on physical support. For example, books, magazines, press, or other periodicals; video games, sheet music, discs, CDs, DVDs, or Blu-ray.
• 100 euros for digital or online consumption. For example, subscriptions and rentals to music, reading or listening platforms, or audiovisuals, purchase of audiobooks, purchase of digital books (e-books), subscription to download multimedia files (podcasts), subscriptions to online video games, digital subscriptions

Stationery products are not included; curricular, printed or digital textbooks; computer and electronic equipment, software, hardware and consumables; artistic material; musical instruments; sports shows, fashion and gastronomy. Products qualified as X or pornographic are not included either.

But, in addition, the Bonus is a direct aid to the cultural sector, a determined support for a key sector of the economy: culture accounts for 3.2% of GDP, and employs 700,000 people (almost 3.5% of total employment). This sector, the cultural sector, was one of those that suffered most as a result of the pandemic.

The Voucher will be used exclusively in establishments or institutions attached to the program located throughout the national territory, or whose offer is consumable from the aforementioned territory. Through the web https://bonoculturajoven.gob.es/ young people can find the entities and companies in which they can use the voucher, both physically throughout the national territory and online. You can also access all the information I have previously told you about the Cultural Bonus.

CULTURAL BONUS IN 2022

The government delegate recalled that the Young Cultural Bonus was launched for the first time in 2022. He recalled that in Castilla y León 13,103 were granted, that is, almost 5,250,000 euros. In Palencia there were 854 (341,600 euros).

As of June 30, 2023, the latest data published, 58,000 operations had been carried out in Castilla y León for a total amount of almost 2 million euros. In Palencia, 4,028 operations had been carried out in the amount of 133,255 euros.

This means that operations amounting to more than 3,250,000 euros in Castilla y León and almost 210,000 euros in Palencia were missing.

The Young Cultural Bonus of 2023 has already been distributed among the first 5,000 young people admitted this year so they have received those 400 euros to enjoy products, services and cultural activities immediately. The public company Correos is the entity in charge of managing the payment of the Young Cultural Voucher, which consists of a prepaid card that the beneficiaries can have either virtually on their mobile device or in a physical format, which they will receive at the postal address indicated in their application.

Virginia Barcones reminded these young people, and also the young people who received their Young Cultural Voucher for these dates in 2022, that “the deadline to make the cultural investment they wish to make is twelve months from the date of concession, not since they requested it or since they received it.”

The delegate of the Government has notified everyone of this situation because it could be the case that, if they are neglected, they cannot invest the 400 euros in full. “I take this opportunity to tell you to take this into account and do not forget first, to apply for the Cultural Bond, and second, to take into account the period of one year to invest the 400 euros since the granting of the same,” he stressed.

In this regard, he added that in the application and on the website available about the Cultural Voucher the beneficiaries have a counter that tells them how much time they have left to use it.

Virginia Barcones has encouraged young people who turn 18 in 2023 to apply for the Cultural Voucher as it will allow them to “get closer and enjoy the culture”. “To you, students of the Palencia Campus, inform your classmates, friends who turn 18 years old,” he added.

Before finishing, he reminded them again that they have a deadline “until this Saturday”, and that to make the request in a very simple way through a website. “With this Cultural Voucher you will be able to invite friends and family to the cinema, to the theater, to concerts… it will allow you to discover unknown cultural expressions or complete a collection of books, comics or albums,” he concluded.