The Rhineland-Palatinate Minister of Social Affairs, Alexander Schweitzer, has spoken out in favor of as many energy suppliers as possible setting up an emergency aid fund for their household customers this year. In this way, people with low incomes can be helped "who are completely overwhelmed by the cost explosion" and who otherwise face an electricity or gas supply ban. "Some municipal energy suppliers such as in Speyer, Mannheim, Heidelberg or Munich have shown how this works," said Schweitzer in an interview with the German Press Agency in Mainz.
"It's about those who can't do anything else and are in a real emergency," said the Social Democrat. "That will be significantly more in the coming heating season than in any previous year." At welfare organizations, there is concern that people will be able to cancel their health insurance or temporarily stop paying the rent because of the high energy costs. "Then everything will slip."
Schweitzer announced that he would talk to the municipal umbrella organizations about such emergency funds this summer. The group of recipients should be limited to those who really need it, so that the amount of the fund remains manageable. In addition to a means test, it should also be proven that options for saving energy have been implemented. "But the payment from funds should be made possible in the short term, and the verification of eligibility should be handled flexibly."
The establishment of emergency funds should not lead to excessive demands on the energy suppliers, said Schweitzer. These would then also have to be supported, possibly with a federal rescue package.
