FUEL INDEMNITY. A sort of fuel bonus for workers, the new fuel allowance was presented to the Council of Ministers on Thursday. What does the text contain, who will be affected by this boost of up to 300 euros and what will be the payment date? Here’s what we already know.
|Updated July 8, 2022, 11:44 a.m.] Up to 300 euros to offset expenses in fuel, this is the objective of the fuel allowance unveiled as part of the purchasing power law presented to the Council of Ministers on Thursday July 7, 2022. Please note, not all French people will be affected far from it. Unlike the discount of 18 centimes per liter valid since April 1 for all motorists, the fuel allowance scheme will target households using their car to get to their place of work and whose income is below a certain ceiling.
Only active people will therefore be able to receive it, which has led the government to name this aid “worker fuel allowance”. This kind of fuel bonus will range from 100 to 200 euros, with a 50% increase for large rollers, which will allow certain beneficiaries to receive 300 euros. Bruno the Mayor had already sketched the contours of it the same morning on the antenna of Europe 1 but the Minister of the Economy gave more details at the exit of the Elysée. The “worker fuel allowance” paid to future beneficiaries of this new system should in the short term replace the fuel discount of 18 cents for all.
The latter was deemed too expensive and not “targeted” enough by the government, which wants to replace this emergency measure with a temporary device concerning only French people taking their vehicles to go to work. The text presented this Thursday, July 7 in the Council of Ministers should then be debated in the National Assembly from July 18, during a highly anticipated sequence as the opposition is divided on this purchasing power law. In the meantime, here is all the first information on this fuel allowance.
How much will the new fuel allowance be?
The contours of this new device are still unclear. Monday July 4, a representative of Bercy, questioned by the newspaper Le Parisien, evoked a payment “in one go”, with a “fixed amount for all, whether one makes 5 km or 30 km per day to go to work, and a bonus for big riders who do more than 12,000 km per year”. This Thursday, July 7, the presentation to the Council of Ministers and the statements that followed made it possible to find out more. The government is counting on several amounts depending on income:
- 200 euros for people whose reference tax income (RFR to be found on your tax return) is less than 9400 euros,
- 100 euros for those whose reference tax income is between 9,400 and 14,100 euros.
- An increase will be possible for heavy rollers if the workplace is “particularly far” from home. This increase for large riders will be 50%.
Who will benefit from the fuel allowance?
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 section on the amount). Asked by The Parisian on July 4, an official from Bercy thus mentioned the figure of “11 million households” concerned, close to the 12 million finally confirmed Thursday, July 7 during the presentation of the bill in 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, ie 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.
What will be the date of payment of the fuel allowance?
Bruno Le Maire had mentioned Thursday morning the date of the October 1, 2022 as possible date of entry into force of this device. “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 1st 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 intended to disappear 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 your 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 did not detail the device further, we imagine that you will have to enter the address your home and your place of work to obtain an estimate of the distances traveled in a professional context and to obtain adequate assistance.Caregivers, self-employed workers and itinerant workers will also be concerned.
A bonus on the fuel allowance for large rollers?
“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 “high rollers”, 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.