From mid-May, North Rhine-Westphalia is expected to give the go-ahead for hardship aid to private households that heat without grid-bound energy sources. This is intended to cushion sharply increased energy costs for heating oil, liquid gas, coal, coke, logs, wood pellets, wood briquettes and wood chips. After the Easter holidays, the state cabinet will take all measures to implement the aid announced by the federal government in North Rhine-Westphalia, announced Municipal Minister Ina Scharrenbach (CDU).
“We know that many people are waiting for the opening of the application process for hardship aid due to the sharp rise in energy costs,” she told the German Press Agency in Düsseldorf. The ministry has received many letters about it. “In North Rhine-Westphalia there are up to 1.2 million households that are eligible to apply and that heat with heating oil, liquid gas or wood in particular,” explained the minister. Of the 1.8 billion euros that the budget committee of the Bundestag released for hardship aid at the end of March, around 379 million euros went to NRW.
The state government has developed a user-friendly application portal that can calculate whether the respective applicants are eligible for hardship assistance. “Anyone who intends to apply for hardship assistance can already apply for the Bund-ID or the Elster-ID today,” recommended the minister. In addition to these user accounts for online administrative services, invoices and bank statements from the previous year are also required. Handwritten documents, on the other hand, cannot be considered in the application process.
The Federal Government had set reference prices for the respective energy sources for the year 2021 for the hardship aid. On the basis of the Bundestag resolution, consumers pay twice the reference price themselves. The additional burden is cushioned by 80 percent. Example: With a reference price of 71 cents per liter of heating oil, consumers have to pay up to 1.42 euros per liter themselves. Only deliveries from 2022 are eligible for hardship support.
According to the ministry, the administrative effort for implementation can be estimated at around ten million euros for NRW alone. The federal government bears the costs.
Information from the Federal Ministry of Economics
