“The energy check is today threatened by a government reform putting an end to its automatic payment” | EUROtoday

EAutomatically despatched annually to the mailboxes of the 5.5 million poorest households, the power test is important help in paying power payments. Already largely inadequate in relation to wants, this technique is at present threatened by a reform which might put an finish to its computerized cost. This authorities arbitration, introduced discreetly as a part of the finance invoice for 2025, runs the danger of a worsening of power poverty from subsequent yr.

While ready for the eradication of power sieves, tens of millions of precarious households are going broke to pay their power payments or are affected by the chilly. For them, the power test gives help with the invoice, even whether it is minimal: its quantity – 150 euros per yr on common – has not modified since 2019 and it doesn’t cowl the rise in power costs . The useful resource ceilings to be eligible are additionally so low – beneath 11,000 euros per yr for a single particular person, or across the poorest 10% – that many households in gasoline poverty don’t profit from them.

With the top of the distinctive support put in place through the power disaster of 2022, probably the most precarious have change into those forgotten by the federal government. However, the indications are crimson. Nearly one in two individuals will battle to pay their power payments in 2024, in comparison with 32% in 2017; 26% of French individuals suffered from the chilly of their houses in 2023, twice as many as in 2020. According to France Stratégie, greater than ten thousand individuals die every winter due to the chilly. Finally, the symbolic mark of 1 million interventions for unpaid power payments was crossed in 2023 and 178,000 energy cuts have been suffered by households.

This unprecedented worsening of power poverty ought to have sparked a surge on the a part of the general public authorities, particularly by the tripling of the quantity of the test. Improving this support focused on the most precarious would price ten instances lower than the tariff defend.

Overwhelming outcomes

Unfortunately, fairly the other is prone to occur. Despite repeated warnings from associations, the abolition of the housing tax prevents the tax companies from figuring out new households eligible for the power test inside a house. For lack of something higher, in 2024, the test was exceptionally despatched to the identical beneficiaries because the earlier yr. For one million new unidentified potential beneficiaries, an internet platform had been opened however, unsurprisingly, only a few have used it, since, thus far, solely 120,000 requests have been recognized and 32,000 checks awarded, i.e. a recourse charge of three% to 12%, removed from the 84% power test utilization charge in 2023.

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