To help you pay your electricity and gas bills, don’t forget the energy check

Electricity prices increased by 10% on average in February: to help pay your electricity (or gas) bills, there is the energy check. Details from Fanny Guinochet.

Electricity prices have increased by 10% on average in February 2024, and heating expenses are weighing on the budget. To help you, there is a system: the energy check.

franceinfo: Be careful, don’t delay in using your energy check…

Fanny Guinochet: Yes, because at the end of this month of March, the 2023 energy check will expire, so if you received it, and you put it aside, now is the time to use it, otherwise it will will be lost.

And that would be a shame, because as its name suggests, this nominative energy check is used to pay your bill directly to your supplier (EDF etc.), to pay for fuel, or even to help finance energy renovation work. This aid varies between 48 and 277 euros per year, but on average, around 150 euros are distributed.

How do I know if I am entitled to it?

This energy check is aimed at the most modest households, so it depends on your income and the number of people counted in the tax household. To receive it, your tax income must not exceed more than 11,000 euros per year, and per consumption unit, that is to say roughly, per person.

If you are eligible, normally you do not have to do anything, the check will be sent to you by mail. More than five and a half million households benefit from it, but check, if you have moved, for example.

And then, this year there were hiccups in the allocation, due to technical problems according to the Ministry of the Economy. Nearly a million people were harmed, some on the other hand, got it, even though they were not entitled to it. If you notice any errors, contact the administration.

And for 2024?

If you benefited from the energy check in 2023, you should automatically receive that of 2024, at provided, however, that your income has not increased. Because the terms of allocation of the energy check have not changed, just like the amounts paid elsewhere, which consumer associations denounce, because prices, particularly for electricity, have continued to increase.

For 2024, the energy check will be sent next April and May. Do aAlso be careful, the Ministry of the Economy warns, beware of fraudulent calls on the rise, calls where you are dangled with this check, and the fraudsters take advantage of this to ask for your bank details.