Last March, the Government announced its intention to approve a reform of the requirements of the large families to benefit from special discounts on your electricity billswith the aim of beginning to apply family income ceilings to access aid (currently large families receive it regardless of their income) and prevent some households that do not really need it from accessing it.
The announcement came amidst controversy after it became known that the then vice president of the Community of Madrid, Enrique Ossorioand the regional leader of Más Madrid and today Minister of Health, Monica Garciathey were perceiving the social electricity and thermal bonuses due to their status as large families and despite the fact that their public salaries distanced them from the profile of vulnerable consumers.
The Government then underlined its intention to activate “as soon as possible” the process to change the social bonus, although weeks later he began to back down and cooled the possibility of a quick reform, tasking himself with achieving a consensus with the associations of large families before applying it. The early elections of 23J – more than four months after the announcement – and the subsequent political standstill until the constitution of the new Government made it difficult to continue with the process.
Ten months after that announcement, the promised reform still has not arrived and the Ministry for the Ecological Transition points out that work continues on it, that it maintains open dialogue with family associations to reach the maximum consensus and that no deadlines are set to open a public hearing process for the reform that in the past It was considered urgent. And while the legal reform has not arrived, thousands of new large families continue to increase the list of beneficiaries of the social electricity bonus and the thermal bonus without income limits.
Almost 380,400 large families received aid on their electricity bill at the end of last September, after adding some 17,500 new households with three or more children since the Executive made public its intention to apply income caps, according to the latest update of the official records of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition. Large families represent a quarter of the total of 1.55 million beneficiaries of the social bonus.
The Government insists that it is working on a reform of the requirements to obtain the electric social bonus (reductions in the bill for vulnerable families) and the thermal social bonus (a check helps to pay part of the gas, water and heating expenses of these families) to establish maximum income criteria per household to access aid also for large families.
Higher rent caps
The Spanish Federation of Large Families has been defending the need to maintain aid to households with more children due to the greater effort they make by consuming more and having to contract higher electrical powers. And, if income caps were applied, the associations claimed months ago that will be calculated by per capita incomethat is, with income calculated taking into account simultaneously the income and size of the families, and not only the total family income.
In any case, the Government has sent messages of tranquility to the large families. The vice president and minister for the Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera, confirmed that, given the particularities of this type of family units and the large number of cohabitants that they can integrate, they will be able to maintain the social electricity and gas vouchers with income levels “much higher” than those required to be considered a vulnerable or severely vulnerable consumer in general.
The Executive does not reveal the details of the future reform on the type of limit that will apply nor on what maximum income amounts will be established for large families. In principle, the Government’s plans are to be more flexible and allow higher incomes for each of the children of large families to be able to access aid.
The income limits that are added for each additional child in general are the result of add 0.5 times the public multiple-effect income indicator (IPREM) – set this year at 8,400 euros per year in 14 installments –but for large families this multiplier will be higher to make it easier for households with higher incomes to continue receiving the social bonus and the thermal bonus.
At the moment, Households made up of two adults and one minor can be considered vulnerable and receive the electric social bonus with annual family incomes of less than 19,320 euros, and in the case of units with two adults and two minors, the limit is set at 23,520 euros, according to Government data. For large families, starting with the third child, the limit would be about 26,500 euros.
Bonds reinforced by the crisis
The electric social bonus allows discounts on electricity bills of between 25% and 40%. depending on the degree of vulnerability, but as part of the anti-crisis measures, the discounts have been temporarily raised to 65% and 80% of the receipt. Large families receive the 25% discount regardless of their income, unless they are specifically considered vulnerable or severely vulnerable consumers.
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The electricity voucher also gives access to all its beneficiaries to thermal social bonus, which involves the granting of a single payment of between 40 and 375 euros per year depending on the degree of vulnerability and the climatic zone in which the beneficiaries live.
The Executive also created a new type of social bonus on an exceptional and temporary basis for middle class households due to the energy crisisThere is economic uncertainty caused by the war, with discounts of 40% on electricity bills for families who, with two adults and two children, can have annual incomes of up to 27,700 euros.