Energy check: the amount of aid could be reduced in 2025 but its allocation more simplified, the deputies will decide

L’attribution du chèque énergie pourrait être plus simple, mais son montant moins onéreux en 2025. MAXPPP – Mourad ALLILI

Attributed to approximately 5.6 million households in France, the energy check could change in 2025. On January 21, senators adopted an amendment automating its payment. But while waiting for the Budget, the trend is towards a decrease in the amount allocated, which will be debated the week of February 3 in the chamber.

Created in 2015 and then generalized in 2018, the energy check is intended for the most modest households, allowing them to benefit from financial assistance to cope with the rise in energy prices. The Senate adopted an amendment on Tuesday, January 21 to modify its method of allocation, reveals Public Sénat. A development that could lead to a second one, concerning the amount allocated.

A simpler but lower aid ?

Ranging from 48 to 277 euros depending on the reference tax income (less than 11,000 euros per consumption unit), the energy check was automatically allocated, between 2018 and 2023, when paying the housing tax. This automation was removed for its sending in 2024, requiring new beneficiaries, up to one million households, to take steps to receive the aid. However, a large proportion of them did not claim it on the digital platform Chequeenergie.gouv.fr.

Consequently, the senators adopted the automation of the energy check for 2025, in order to avoid the non-use of this payment, as was the case in 2024. “It is likely that we have barely exceeded 12% of checks allocated compared to the estimated million new beneficiaries”, Françoise Thiebaut, energy coordinator at the National Council of Secular Family Associations (Cnafal), deplored at the end of December 2024.

However, this would not be the only change in aid. Its amount, on average 136 euros, could be revised downwards.

The reduction in the energy check, a consequence of the 2025 Budget ?

The government is planning a reduction of 180 million euros in the energy check system, according to the Minister responsible for Public Accounts, Amélie de Montchalin, who spoke on BFMTV. A budget cut that would then see a decrease in the energy check, by around 20%. This is the whole debate that will be played out during the week of February 3 at the National Assembly, where the deputies will decide.

The left is particularly opposed to this budget cut, as stated by Public Sénat. The latter had notably campaigned for the “restoration of last year's budget, to the tune of 900 million euros”. Moreover, the Green senator Yannick Jadot even proposed raising the eligibility ceiling to the level of the minimum wage. “The current ceiling is far too low, it does not allow us to reach all the people who live below the poverty line, or the people above the ceiling but who live in thermal sieves” defended the elected official.