because the rich collect the aid that was for the poor

MadridThat a politician with an annual salary of 105,000 euros and a patrimony of around two million covers an aid to pay for heating and hot water while really vulnerable consumers do not perceive it. This paradox has forced the Spanish government to urgently review a gap in State aid: the debate on whether large families should receive the bonus regardless of their income has dragged on for years, but it has been necessary that the case of Enrique Ossorio, the vice-president of Isabel Díaz Ayuso, came to light, so that the Ministry of Ecological Transition begins to study adjustments in the criteria for access to the electrical social bond and the thermal social bond. It is about establishing a maximum income for large families above which they could no longer enjoy discounts and subsidies.

What are social bonds?

Discounts on the electricity bill and an income for heating and hot water

The social bonus was created in 2009 and consists of a discount on the electricity bill for vulnerable consumers who have contracted the regulated tariff and with a power of less than 10 Kw. Cohabitation units with a joint income of less than 11,863 euros if there is no minor, 15,817 if there is one minor and 19,771 if there are two minors are entitled to it. Also people who receive the minimum vital income, are pensioners and receive the minimum amount, and large families. In addition, there are other categories of severely vulnerable consumers and consumers at risk of social exclusion. In the first case, the discount is 25% – 65% exceptionally until December 31–; in the second, 40% – from 80% until December 31–, and in the third, it is practically complete. In addition to the electricity voucher, households that receive it also collect the thermal voucher, an aid for heating and hot water created in 2018 that is received once a year with a deposit in the bank account. The figure ranges from 40 euros to almost 400 for the severely vulnerable.

How much do people charge?

Out of 3.4 million potential consumers, only 1.35 are received

Sources from the Ministry of Ecological Transition consulted by the ARA report that 1.35 million families benefit from these aids throughout the State. Specifically, there are 132,180 families in Catalonia. For segregated data, the last figures available are from September 2022, and they were almost 1.29 million: the vast majority, 819,003, are families with low incomes, 347,863 large families, 114,790 pensioners and 2,193 recipients of the minimum living income . The problem is that this total number of households that receive the social bonus is far from the 3.4 million that would be eligible to receive the aid. However, a distinction must be taken into account: of these 3.4, there are 1.9 who would be entitled to the electricity and thermal vouchers, while 1.5 million to the so-called energy justice social voucher which the State executive instituted last October. Three months after its launch, only 2,300 families had been accommodated.

Why is there this lag?

The problem of bureaucracy

Coinciding with the controversy between Ossorio and the leader of Més Madrid, Mónica García, this Thursday the Complaints Ombudsman of Catalonia, Ester Giménez-Salinas, highlighted in the 2022 annual report that was delivered to Parliament the complexity for many families to apply for the social bonus. There are those who don’t even know what rate they have contracted. “The main problem is the brutal bureaucracy. You have to hand in a lot of documentation, sometimes submit allegations… That’s why we’re asking the ministry to do it automatically by cross-referencing data from companies and the Treasury” , notes the spokeswoman for the Alliance against Energy Poverty, Maria Campuzano, in a conversation with ARA. “The other problem is that today there are people who don’t even know that this social benefit exists,” he adds. The ministry’s response to the associations’ proposals has been that they would study them, but Campuzano is not very optimistic. Ecological Transition sources note that the procedure is not that difficult and that organizations and social services are accompanied so that the requests are made.

Who pays the social bonus?

The electricity is assumed by the companies, which can pass it on to other consumers, and the thermal comes out of the budgets

Ayuso defended this week that Ossorio collect these benefits so that they do not deprive other people of receiving them. However, the thermal voucher is paid by all Spaniards through the general budget of the State. The item for 2023 is 259 million euros. As for the electricity, the companies officially take care of it – in different percentages depending on whether they are generators, distributors or marketers – but there is widespread suspicion that a part is charged on the bill of other consumers . The National Markets and Competition Commission has made an estimate of a cost of between 790 and 1,000 million euros this year.