Government Approves A Check For 90 Euros For The Payment Of Heating Of Vulnerable Consumers

The Government has approved a check for 90 euros per household to cover the heating needs of vulnerable consumers who already benefit from the so-called thermal social bonus.

This was announced by the third vice president and minister for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Teresa Ribera, at the press conference after the Council of Ministers, where she detailed the new decree law approved to contain the effects of the rise in prices energy is causing consumers and businesses.

This is an additional check to the aid that these vulnerable consumers already receive through the thermal social bonus, given the rise in electricity and gas that has been recorded for months.

Ribera has indicated that the check will be available from December and that to this end, the department he heads will release the necessary economic items that will be distributed to the autonomous communities, who will manage the payment of this single payment. “It is an additional measure for a difficult year of high energy prices,” the minister stressed.

Likewise, the Government has increased the discounts that are already applied to the electricity social bond and to which 1.2 million households are accommodated. The discounts will now go from 25% to 60% in general and from 40% to 70% for severe cases.

The minister explained that this new decree has a triple purpose: to promote the protection of vulnerable consumers, increase the transparency of the electricity and gas markets and favor the stability of industrial consumers.

In the field of consumer protection, in addition to the new check of 90 euros and the increase in discounts, the Government has once again extended the social shield until March 31, so the costs of basic supplies will be prohibited , measure that was approved for the first time in the first alarm state.

Cases exempt from reduction
Regarding transparency, Ribera has insisted that the reduction to electricity companies will only be applied in the event that a company or technology has benefited from the rise in the price of gas. “Those who have not incorporated it, do not fall within the reduction”, he pointed out.

Likewise, it has detailed that fixed-term contracts signed before September 16, at which time the reduction royal decree was approved, as well as those that introduce extensions of coverage with a fixed price, are exempt from this reduction.

On the contrary, the part of the contracts that is indexed to the markets will fall within the perimeter from which the reduction will be applied for benefiting from the extraordinary benefits linked to the price of gas, always proportionally.

In this way, the minister has informed that the electricity and natural gas traders will have to report, one month in advance, any modification in the contracts and send transparent information to the National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC) and updated of the available offers.

New information obligations will also come into force in the wholesale market with the aim of strengthening the supervisory capacity over price formation mechanisms, both in intra-group contracts and with third parties, including financial hedging.