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Once again this year, vulnerable households are eligible for the Temporary Energy Emergency Fund.
Financial relief for over 50,000 households
Last year, over 50,000 households benefited from the Temporary Energy Emergency Fund. The Fund provides financial relief to households amidst rising energy prices. Due to the removal of the price cap, increased gas taxes, and rising grid management costs, it is once again possible to apply this year.
Disbursement of the Emergency Fund
Energy suppliers must once again activate the process to facilitate disbursements (or the closing of outstanding invoices) from the Emergency Fund to eligible households. And because these are vulnerable households in real need of the disbursement, we do not want to unnecessarily delay their financial relief.
Suzan Duivenvoorden, Product Specialist at FIQAS, says: “Last year, Greenchoice was among the top performers in quickly processing applications from the Emergency Fund. Quite an achievement considering it was still a temporary process and the government dictated the rules and tight deadlines. So, when it became clear that the Emergency Fund would be reinstated this year, we knew that we didn’t have to change anything in our Abillity® process.”
Automated process
The process itself remains largely the same. People register their households themselves and after a check, they either qualify or not. Greenchoice then informs us which customers have been allocated amounts from the Emergency Fund. And we ensure that the correct disbursements are made – automated – through our Abillity® platform.
This year, the scheme has been slightly relaxed, which is expected to make more households eligible for the Emergency Fund. How many, remains to be seen. People can apply until April 1, 2024. For our Abillity® platform, this doesn’t matter. We are accustomed to processing high volumes correctly and without errors.
TNO Research
Research by TNO shows that in 2022, over 600,000 households in the Netherlands were living in energy poverty*. These are households with high energy costs, low income, and living in poorly insulated homes. In 2022, they spent an average of 12.7% of their income on energy costs.
* The TNO Research is only available in Dutch
