Barring a last-minute reversal, households eligible for the 2024 energy check have until 11:59 p.m. Tuesday to submit their application to an online counter, the effectiveness of which has been contested by several players in the sector, who are calling for additional time.
A first round of energy checks 5.5 million checks were distributed automatically in April. Since then, eligible households, but forgotten by the first mailing for administrative reasons, can claim their aid on the digital platform chequeenergie.gouv.fr.
Nearly 122,500 checks had been issued as of December 27 via the counter, for an average amount of 136 euros, according to official figures obtained by AFP. Around 10% of this aid is “supplementary checks” intended for people who have already received a check, but whose situation has changed since last year, specifies the office of the Minister for Industry and Energy, Marc Ferracci.
“To date, it is likely that we have barely exceeded 12% of checks awarded compared to the estimated million new beneficiaries”, deplores Françoise Thiebaut, energy coordinator at the National Council of Secular Family Associations (Cnafal). “It is difficult to know precisely how many people have not yet benefited from the aid,” estimates the minister's office.
A million beneficiaries
Distributed since 2018, the energy check helps low-income citizens (reference tax income below 11,000 euros for a single person) pay their energy bills and certain energy renovation works. This system benefits, depending on the year, around 5.7 million households, according to figures from the Directorate of Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics (Drees).
Originally, this aid of between 48 and 277 euros was allocated by cross-referencing data from the tax services and housing tax data, which made it possible to verify that two people in the same tax household do not receive it at the same time. But when the housing tax was abolished in 2023, this crossover became impossible.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000“What the public authorities decided for 2024 was to automatically reallocate the energy check to all those who had received it in 2023, which allowed for an automatic payment”, explains to AFP Frédérique Fériaud, general director of the Energy Mediator, an independent authority.
“Every year, we estimate that a million people leave the target of beneficiaries because their income has increased, and a million who return,” she adds. “This is why this catch-up platform was set up. But as expected, it was not as successful as expected.”
About twenty players in the sector, including the Cnafal and the National Federation of Conceding Authorities and Regulators (FNCCR), had expressed in mid-October “strong fears”, warning of the lack of communication around the digital platform and the difficulty for the households concerned to register.
An additional delay ?
“We are talking about the first two deciles of the population (the poorest 20%, Editor's note), who do not necessarily know where to get help and who do not always have access to the internet or a computer“, explains Françoise Thiebaut, from the Cnafal.
“They often have a telephone but it is not easy to do these procedures on a smartphone”, she adds. To help these people, a draft decree extending access to the digital platform until March 31 has been created.
This project received a favorable opinion on December 19 from the Higher Energy Council, the advisory body bringing together the main stakeholders in the sector responsible for advising the public authorities. But since then, the Barnier government has given way to the Bayrou administration. With a ministerial reorganization as a bonus.
The energy portfolio, previously within the Ministry of Ecological Transition, is now attached to Bercy. “This complicates things”, judges Ms. Thiebaut, who nevertheless observes a resurgence of steps in this final stretch and hopes for a decree “so that everything is truly secure”. Minister Ferracci's office says it is following “the evolution of requests closely” but has not confirmed the possibility of an extension of the platform.