Energy, the Isee threshold to access the social bonus increases to 15 thousand euros

The audience of consumers who will be able to take advantage of the social bonuses for energy is expanding even more. In fact, the sector authority Arera has published the resolution that raises the maximum Isee income threshold from 12 thousand and 15 thousand euros within which you can benefit from the subsidy in the bill, which translates into an automatic discount on the amount due.

In fact, Arera followed up on what Parliament had already established in the budget law approved at the end of 2022. Since the beginning of the energy crisis, it is the second adjustment of the threshold, which in March 2022 had been raised from 8,265 to 12 thousand euros.

Today the maximum ISEE increases by three thousand euros, so it will be easier to get the bonus. The same cannot be said for large families with four or more children, for whom the Isee threshold remains at 20,000 euros. The measure remains open to both customers on the protected market and those on the free market.

From 2021 the bonus is automatic: it means that it is not necessary to request it every year (as was the case previously). This is thanks to the fact that the INPS databases – which owns the income data – and the Integrated Information System – which has the information on all the meters in Italy – “talk” to each other. But be careful: as Federconsumatori also points out, you still need to present the DSU (single self-declaration) to your municipality of residence, on the INPS website or at the Caf. The consumer association also turns to Arera to investigate “the causes of the serious delays in the disbursement of the 2022 bonus, which many citizens have been reporting for some time at our branches”.

In 2022 it was above all the new beneficiaries (i.e. with an income between eight thousand and 12 thousand euros) who suffered delays in disbursing the bonus. The problems had been exacerbated by the fact that the Arera consumer desk site was out of service for several weeks.

Federconsumatori is asking for more: a long installment of bills (just this week the associations reached an agreement of this type with Eni Plenitude) “but also a suspension of disconnections for innocent arrears”, a measure that had been taken in the midst of the pandemic but then back in the attic, “and the establishment of a fund to effectively combat energy poverty”.

Then on the table is the announced reform of discounts on bills that Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti has talked about in recent days. The idea is to no longer intervene directly on the tariff (for example by lowering VAT and eliminating system charges) but to act upstream, i.e. to control the tariffs with a “State discount” which would not apply to the full amount of the bill but at about 80%. “We would not like this reorganization to result in an overall reduction of the appropriations or in measures with distorting effects” warns Federconsumatori, asking for a discussion on the subject with all the associations.