Significantly higher will be heating benefit which the beneficiaries will receive next December. The choice of households that will receive the allowance for heating oil will be done with income and property criteria, which will be the same as last year.
The government staff has made it a high priority to cover part of the increases that have occurred or will occur in the energy sector. So after the allowance given to electricity, an allowance that covers horizontal consumption up to 600 MW, comes the turn of heating oil and gas.
The difference, of course, is that in this benefit, the beneficiaries will be the vulnerable and not all. According to what has been announced by the prime minister, the fund will increase compared to last year by 20% and is expected to reach around 100 million euros.
Estimates, however, based on economic data, speak of an extremely difficult winter, with the price of heating oil being at levels at least 20% higher than last year.
The distribution of heating oil, this year as every year will start on October 15 and is scheduled to range at 1.05 euros per liter in Athens and Thessaloniki, at 1.10 euros in the rest of the mainland and around 1.20 – 1.25 euros per liter on the islands. Gas is projected to be even 50% more expensive than last year due to the jump in international prices.
It should be noted that those who meet the income and property criteria and use heating oil and natural gas are entitled to the heating allowance. Also subsidized are households located in settlements with less than 2,500 inhabitants and heated with firewood and pellets.
The base allowance, which was set at 220 euros last year for each eligible household, is expected to rise to 260 euros. The basic allowance is multiplied by the subsidy rate of the Postal Code per settlement in which the main residence is located and is increased by 10% for each dependent child of the beneficiary. With this mathematical formula the allowance received by each beneficiary is calculated. Last year the allowance started from 80 euros and reached 650 euros while this year the amounts will move to higher levels.
What are the property and income criteria?
Beneficiaries of the heating allowance are natural persons for the real estate they use as their main residence at the time of application, whether they are rented or granted free of charge or own if they meet the following income and property criteria:
- Singles who in the previous year had an annual total income of up to 12,000 euros and owned urban real estate with a total objective value of up to 100,000 euros.
- Married as well as taxpayers who are parties to cohabitation agreements who had an annual total family income of up to 20,000 euros and owned urban real estate with an objective value of up to 200,000 euros. The income limit of 20,000 euros will be increased by 2,000 euros for each dependent child.
- Single-parent families with an annual total income of up to 22,000 euros who owned urban real estate with an objective value of up to 200,000 euros. The income limit of 22,000 euros will be increased by 2,000 euros for each dependent child after the first.
The allowance is not granted to guests, those who fall under the luxury living tax as well as to natural persons who have more than 2 E.I.X. cars, including those in voluntary immobility.
The article Heating oil: 20% increase in the allowance – Who is entitled to it and when it will be paid published in NewsIT .