FUEL INDEMNITY. A new aid, called fuel allowance, will be paid from October, announced the government but the project is subject to the vote of the purchasing power law. How would this sort of “fuel bonus” work? Who will be eligible and what will be the terms? Here’s everything we already know.
[Updated July 18, 2022 at 12:24 p.m.] This is one of the key components of the purchasing power law that the government is presenting from this Monday, July 18 to the National Assembly: the fuel allowance. This kind of “fuel bonus”, was unveiled by the government but subject to many conditions, according to the wish of the executive to opt for more targeted devices. “I want to say in all transparency that we are going to move towards mechanisms that will target the people who need them the most. This does not mean that the middle classes will be forgotten”, underlined the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron in the traditional July 14 television interview.
No question of capping the price of fuel or lowering taxes as desired by part of the opposition, including the LR party. “It’s part of the red lines, why? Because it explodes public spending”, replied Bruno Le Maire on Monday morning at the microphone of RTL. The public finance framework has been defined, we must see a 5% deficit in 2022. The public finance framework is not negotiable because it would be bad for our compatriots, our children, and it would increase the debt burden . I think Republicans can hear it perfectly, and we can move forward.”
Bruno Le Maire had however opened the debate on these conditions of resources. “We are ready to have an allowance that affects the middle classes more, confides the Minister of the Economy to Le Parisien in an interview published on July 15, 2022. “Let Parliament be free to make proposals.” If the lower classes will be targeted, Bruno Le Maire had taken the example on July 11 of a “couple earning 3,600 euros per month and having two children” as the future beneficiary of this fuel bonus. “SMS and emails will be sent to those who will be entitled to it. “, he had also slipped, questioned by LCI in mid-July. If the text promises bitter debates in the National Assembly, this kind of fuel bonus will undoubtedly be one of the central points of this project. intended to counter or at least limit the effects of inflation.
If a representative of Bercy, questioned by the newspaper Le Parisien, evoked at the beginning of July a payment “in one go”, with a “fixed amount for all, whether we do 5 km or 30 km a day to go to work, and a bonus for heavy riders who travel more than 12,000 km per year”, the presentation of the system to the Council of Ministers on July 7 and the statements that followed made it possible to learn more about this bill. The government is counting on several amounts depending on income:
Bruno Le Maire admits it, the choice made by the government is “political”, that of targeting people who work and go to their workplace by car. Bruno Le Maire had not mentioned resource conditions on the morning of July 7 on the Europe 1 antenna, but the system should still include income criteria, based on the reference tax income of households (see above in the amount section). Asked by Le Parisien on July 4, an official from Bercy thus mentioned the figure of “11 million households” concerned, close to the 12 million finally confirmed on Thursday July 7 when the bill was presented to the Council of Ministers. This figure is based on the maximum reference taxable income to benefit from the aid. The bill targets households located between deciles 1 to 5 of the reference tax income, i.e. up to 14,100 euros of reference tax income (RFR per share). To check your eligibility, you will therefore have to check your reference tax income available on your last tax return.
Bruno Le Maire had mentioned Thursday morning the date of October 1, 2022 as a possible date of entry into force of this system. “From October 1, in any case this is the proposal we are making, we are setting up this fuel allowance for workers”, explained the Minister of the Economy. The objective is to gradually replace this device with the discount of 18 cents valid since April 1 and perceived by Bruno Le Maire as “emergency”, “massive” aid but which must now give way to a “device more targeted. This fuel discount of 18 cents for all would be eliminated by the end of 2022, gradually increasing to 12 cents in October, 6 cents in November before disappearing completely from December 2022.
Unlike the fuel discount of 18 cents which was automatically taken into account at the pump, the motorists concerned will have to make a request this time to benefit from this new aid. “You log on to the website, you declare that you have a car, that you use it to go to work and you receive this aid […]. The objective is very simple, it is to cover almost all of your fuel costs”. If the Minister of the Economy has not detailed the device further, we imagine that it will be necessary to enter the address of your home and that of your place of work to obtain an estimate of the distances traveled in the professional context and to obtain a adequate help. Caregivers, self-employed and itinerant workers will also be affected.
“If you are a heavy roller, you receive additional compensation”, explained Bruno Le Maire on July 7, 2022 at the microphone of Europe 1. Heavy rollers in a professional setting will indeed be particularly affected by this new fuel compensation system. targeted and the increase could reach 50% according to the project presented this Thursday in the Council of Ministers. At most, the fuel allowance will therefore reach 300 euros (200 euros 50% increase). By “big riders”, the government intends to target those who live more than 30 kilometers from their place of work as well as those who travel more than 12,000 kilometers per year in the professional context.
