Status: 03/30/2023 1:57 p.m
It was a long struggle, now the federal and state governments have agreed on the details for the hardship aid. The relief for heating oil and pellet customers should flow retrospectively for the year 2022. It remains unclear when customers will receive the money.
The federal and state governments have finally agreed on the payment of aid for households that heat with heating oil, wood pellets and similar raw materials. The Federal Ministry of Economics announced today that there was agreement on the details of the corresponding agreement.
Households will then receive retrospective financial support for 2022 “if they had significant additional expenses due to the energy crisis” – based on the mechanism of the electricity and gas price brake. However, it is not yet clear when the aid will be paid out.
As early as mid-December last year, the Bundestag decided that households that heat with heating oil or wood pellets should be relieved. However, the federal government failed to publish the details of the so-called hardship aid.
Owners of pellet and oil heating systems are waiting for financial relief, large crowds are expected at Easter at the airports
3/30/2023 11:57 am
Who is entitled to assistance?
The aid is aimed at private households that have been affected by the sharp rise in prices and at the same time are not benefiting from the gas price brake. The federal government had set up a hardship fund of 1.8 billion euros for this purpose. The Budget Committee of the Bundestag gave the green light to this yesterday. The applications for payments from the pot should now be able to be made soon.
According to the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the prerequisite is that the costs of households for pellets, oil, liquid gas, coal and similar have doubled compared to the reference prices of 2021. The federal and state governments have set about 71 cents per liter for heating oil and 24 cents per kilogram for wood pellets.
The included energy sources include heating oil, liquid gas (LPG), wood pellets, wood chips, wood briquettes, firewood and coal/coke.
What is reimbursed?
Consumers can submit their bills for the period from January 1 to December 1, 2022 and be reimbursed for up to 80 percent of the additional costs that exceed the doubling. The claim must amount to at least 100 euros. The maximum reimbursement amount is 2000 euros per household. If, for example, landlords act as “central applicants” and apply for help for an entire building, for example, the maximum reimbursement amount drops to 1000 euros per household.
The Federal Ministry of Economics presents the example of a household that purchases 3,000 liters of heating oil per year, for which it had to pay 1.60 euros per liter in 2022. Compared to the previous year 2021, however, the costs have more than doubled – the fixed reference price for heating oil is 0.71 euros. For the example household, this would result in a subsidy amount of 432 euros.
Countries responsible for payment
The application processing and payment is carried out by the federal states, as the ministry further announced. They would still have to formally agree to the preliminary agreement with the federal government and develop the application procedures. “The necessary portals and applications to the federal states will be activated as soon as possible,” it said. “There may be differences in time between the countries.”
However, there should be a “lean and unbureaucratic”, IT-based application process. As a rule, applicants must submit invoices, bank statements and/or receipts for payments, among other things.