VIDEO // Over 605,000 households to get energy compensation

A total of 605,538 households, where over 1.2 million people live, will benefit from energy compensation. More than half of them, or 53 percent, will receive the maximum compensation. The funds will be directed starting today to those who have indicated they want to receive them on a card, and the remaining beneficiaries will be able to receive payments starting Monday, December 15, at post offices. Minister of Labor and Social Protection Natalia Plugaru made the statement today.

Thus, 53% of eligible households will receive the maximum compensation, which is 800 lei for those heating with wood and 1,000 lei for other heating sources. Meanwhile, 23% of beneficiaries will receive compensation between the minimum and maximum values, which represent 500 lei and 1,000 lei. The rest of the eligible households, or a quarter of the beneficiaries, will receive minimum compensation of 500 lei. Compensations will be granted throughout the entire heating season.

The most households that will benefit from compensation, about 287,000, heat with solid fuel, followed by those using natural gas - over 169,000 households, thermal energy - 106,134 households and electricity - over 43,000 households.


“Compensations are largely offered to pensioners, around 400,000, to households with children and youth, also around 340,000, households with people with disabilities, over 23,000 people, and the unemployed - over 11,000 people,” emphasized the Minister of Labor and Social Protection.


Payments will be transferred starting today for beneficiaries who have indicated they want to receive them on a bank card. For those who have not indicated a bank account and wish to receive compensation at the post office, they will be able to collect payments starting Monday, December 15, at all post offices in the country, with the presentation of an identity card.

The estimated budget for granting the compensations is 2.3 billion lei, resources that will be allocated from the state budget.

In total, this year, approximately 783,000 energy compensation requests have been submitted to the system. These have been analyzed based on several eligibility criteria. This involves the cumulative value of the shares of the properties owned by household members, which must not exceed 2.5 million lei, the total income from the dividends of household members must not exceed 300,000 lei, the average past consumption must not exceed the equivalent of 350 cubic meters of gas, and the income from bank interest should be a maximum of 4,000 lei last year.

Once households qualify according to these criteria, the calculation formula follows, which takes into account household income, their composition, the status of members, the presence of a person with a disability in the household, but also the type of heating source. All applications are processed and all data from the system is verified with 12 other connected sources and systems to check the information indicated in the application.

The additional verification measures for data from applications are the same as in the previous season. Thus, data from the informational systems of several institutions are verified: the State Tax Service, the National House of Social Insurance, the National Council for Disability Determination and Work Capacity, Public Services Agency, energy suppliers, the National Employment Agency, universities, banking institutions. Based on this analysis, the system calculates an individualized compensation for each household.

The program has been offering energy compensations to vulnerable households for four consecutive years, from November to March. Compensations are provided in the form of monetary payment, paid monthly.

People who have not yet submitted applications to request compensations can still do so but will not receive compensation for November. If the application was submitted after the 25th of the month, compensations will be granted starting from the following month.