Nearly 6 million households receive the energy check each year in the spring. This state aid, the amount of which can reach up to €277, aims to help them pay their electricity or gas bills, but also certain fuels intended for heating their homes (wood, fuel oil, LPG. ..), the energy costs of residents in nursing homes or sheltered accommodation as well as certain work and energy expenses.
Energy checks are sent by post between April and May. The shipments are automatic, with eligible households being identified automatically via data collected by the tax services. But exceptionally this year, some of the beneficiaries received an energy check in the spring even though they no longer met the conditions to benefit from it.
This anomaly is due to a tax miss. Usually, automatic sending of energy checks is set taking into account the income and composition of the household established from the housing tax declaration. However, the latter has been completely and definitively abolished since last year, thus preventing the automatic establishment of the new list of beneficiaries of the energy check in 2024. The State is therefore in the most total vagueness as to who is entitled to it. or not to this aid this year.
This error has several consequences. The first: some households have received no help even though they are entitled to the energy check. The households concerned are mainly those whose income fell between 2021 and 2022 (year used for the 2024 payments), those who had a birth in 2022 and young people who recently entered working life and who were therefore first-time tax filers. last year. For those concerned, the energy check site will set up a portal allowing them to request their help via an online platform. This service will be implemented from July. Aggrieved beneficiaries will have until December to apply for assistance.
Second consequence of this administrative failure: households received an energy check in April even though they were no longer entitled to it in 2024. The administration has in fact decided to repay the energy check to those who have already received it. last year, even though their 2022 income would now exceed the ceilings applicable this year. The households concerned are mainly those whose income increased between 2021 and 2022 and/or whose child left the family home between these two dates.
The public service justifies this undue payment by the desire to maintain the automatic nature of the sending of energy checks. In the absence of systematic renewal, each beneficiary household would have had to make a prior request to receive their aid in 2024. A boon for some of the beneficiaries who should not have received a check this year and who can therefore benefit from the system once additional year.
