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Since spring 2024, to receive this aid to reduce the energy bill of the most modest households, new beneficiaries must register on a platform. A system maintained by the government in its finance bill for 2025, despite alerts from UFC-Que Choisir or even Secours catholique who fear an explosion of non-recourse.
On paper, the energy check is spared by the budget cuts planned by the government to reduce the public deficit. Experimented in 2016 in four departments, then generalized to the whole of France in 2018, the system, which replaced the social tariffs for gas and electricity, “is protected in 2025, with an envelope equivalent to 2024”, or 900 million euros, announced Agnès Pannier-Runacher, Minister of Ecological Transition, Energy, Climate and Risk Prevention, during the presentation of her ministry’s budget on Friday. But it risks being seriously weakened, the government having declared the end of its automatic sending, at least for 2025.
Granted on a means-tested basis to pay part of energy bills, this aid – on average 150 euros, in 2024 – was previously paid each year, without the need for prior request, on the basis of cross-referencing data. tax and those appearing on the housing tax. Problem: following the elimination of the latter on January 1, 2023, the administration found itself without an up-to-date file to automatically send the check to the approximately 5.6 million eligible low-income households (11,000 euros of income maximum for a person living alone), or around 20% of French households.
Each year there are approximately one million households entering and leaving the system
In April, for the 2024 campaign, when
