In recent weeks, more households than expected have appealed to the Temporary Energy Emergency Fund to pay their energy bills. This was reported by outgoing Minister of Poverty Policy Carola Schouten (CU). a letter to the House of Representatives. That is why the government and energy suppliers are making an additional 24 million euros available, Schouten reports.
Since the fund was opened on January 22, 85,586 applications have been received at the counter by February 11. Due to the high demand, it is predicted that with the available budget of 60 million euros, the emergency fund can remain open until the end of February, one month before the planned closure of the fund.
Energy suppliers have made an additional 8 million euros available. The central government supplements this amount with 16 million euros that has already been reserved for this purpose in the budget. This increases the total available budget from 60 to 84 million euros. It is expected that in this way the emergency fund can be kept open until mid-March. However, this remains dependent on the number of applications, Schouten reports in the letter.
The Temporary Energy Emergency Fund was established by energy suppliers and the government on January 22, 2024 opened with purpose to help vulnerable households pay high energy bills. In 2023, more than 50,000 households already received support from the fund, which paid out a total of 43.7 million euros. With an average compensation amount of 105 euros per month, energy suppliers hope to prevent energy debts from arising. Already on the first day of the opening of the emergency fund in 2024, 17,000 applications were made.