About 2 million out of around 4 million potential beneficiary families of the electricity and gas bonuses have benefited of them so far, and at least once. In particular, on an annual basis, 34% of those entitled to electricity bonuses and 27% of those entitled to gas bonuses have actually benefited of them, which is one third of the audience that would be entitled to.
Over 80% of respondents from the 15 associations who have worked in 2016 on the project "Bonus a sapersi" (Cittadinanzattiva, Acu, Adiconsum, Adoc, Associazione Utenti Radiotelevisivi, Assoconsum, Assoutenti, Codacons, Codici, Confconsumatori, Federazione Confconsumatori-Acp, Federconsumatori, Lega Consumatori, Movimento Consumatori, Movimento difesa del cittadino, Unione Nazionale Consumatori) claims to have intercepted citizens who would meet the criteria for the bonus request but who are unaware of it.
In addition to this, about 39% of citizens said that the procedure for the request is complex or very complex; 47% of them affirm information is not sufficiently disseminated or accessible. Still, only 56% of people find the amount of the bonus appropriate to the bills and 52% believe that the current ISEE(1) threshold is inadequate to identify all the people who would really need it.
The main complaints from those who received the bonuses are: the complex iter for the application (30,3%), the amount deemed inadequate with regard to actual consumptions (22,5%), procedures for the renewal of the application (11,2%), application denied (10,9%).
These data - presented today in Rome at the press conference - confirmed that this allowance should offer correct and thorough information to citizens. This is a key issue as more than one out of ten citizens who appeal to consumer associations have arrears in the payment of bills.
These are some of the main issues arising in the context of the project activities Bonus a sapersi” supported by AEEGSI, which has helped increase the information on energy bonuses, through training sessions held in 73 cities, an operating manual and a video for citizens.
It has emerged the need to intervene on some fronts, including:
- raising awareness with institutional information about the bonus among families
- providing additional measures against energy poverty
- raising the ISEE threshold for access to the bonus from the current 8.107,5 to € 11.000
- necessity to change the ISEE calculation criteria, for example by excluding the value of houses of residence and disability pensions, and adding to the calculation other certified family expenses
1. Equivalent Economic Situation Index
