An exceptional energy check will be paid from November 8 to half of the households that heat with fuel oil. To protect the French, an envelope of 230 million euros to help the most modest households heating with oil to pay their energy bills was voted this summer in the amending finance law. As the Ministry of Economy and Finance specified in a press release on October 8, “an energy check of 100 to 200 euros will therefore be sent to half of the households that heat with fuel oil, i.e. approximately 1.6 million of hearths”. An exceptional fuel check which must be paid from Tuesday, November 8, 2022 to almost half of the homes heating with fuel oil.
In practice, Bercy has announced that the amount of the fuel oil energy check “will depend on household income (2020 income is taken into account for the calculation) and the number of people in the household”. Here are some examples provided by the official website of the Ministry of Economy:
In order to find out if you are eligible for this exceptional energy check, a simulator has been created online on the website https://chequeenergie.gouv.fr/ so that households can check if they can benefit from this aid.
In practice, this fuel aid, which takes the form of an energy check, “can be used to pay all types of energy bills (gas, electricity, fuel oil, wood pellets, etc.)”. Bercy also specifies that “eligible households who have already filled their fuel tank at the time of receipt of the check will therefore not lose the benefit of the aid”. Indeed, “they will be able to use this check to pay, for example, their electricity bill or their next fuel bill, until March 2024”.
In order to facilitate the payment of this aid, the Ministry of Economy and Finance has specified the two payment channels for the energy check which will be used from 8 November:
Bercy specifies that this fuel oil financial aid “is not applicable to fuel oil bills already paid”. However, the press release from the Ministry of the Economy specifies that the households concerned should not wait for this energy check to be sent to fill their fuel tank.