FUEL INDEMNITY. The new aid called “fuel allowance”, a kind of fuel bonus, will be paid from October, the government announced. There will be many conditions. What will be the maximum amount, how do you know if you are eligible? We take stock.
[Mis à jour le 15 juillet 2022 à 08h03] The indemnity fuel, a new aid in the form of a “fuel bonus”, was unveiled by the government as part of the presentation of the purchasing power bill. This aid will be subject to numerous conditions, according to the wish of the executive to opt for more targeted devices. “I want to say in all transparency that we are going to move towards mechanisms that will target the people who need them the most. This does not mean that the middle classes will be forgotten”, underlined the President of the Republic Emmanuel Macron in the traditional July 13 television interview.
The fuel allowance is part of this package of targeted measures. While the discount of 18 cents per liter of fuel affected all motorists, the fuel bonus which would replace it on October 1 will only concern French people using their vehicle for their business trips (journey from home to place of work and vice versa) and fulfilling income conditions. Bruno the Mayor however opened the debate on these conditions of resources. “We are ready to have an allowance that affects the middle classes more, confides the Minister of the Economy to Le Parisien in an interview published on July 15, 2022. “Let Parliament be free to make proposals. I reiterate my opposition to the abolition of taxes on imported fossil fuels, at an astronomical cost to public finances. Otherwise, I am ready to look at all the proposals.”
If the lower classes will be targeted, Bruno Le Maire took the example on July 11 of a “couple earning 3600 euros per month and having two children” as the future beneficiary of this fuel bonus. “SMS and emails will be sent to those who are entitled to them,” he also slipped, interviewed by LCI. “We must help the working middle classes. I will be attentive to ensuring that the middle classes can continue to work”. If the text promises bitter debates in the National Assembly from mid-July, this kind of fuel bonus will undoubtedly be one of the central points of this project intended to counter or at least limit the effects of inflation.
How much will the new fuel allowance be?
If a representative of Bercy, questioned by the newspaper Le Parisien, evoked at the beginning of July a payment “in one go”, with a “fixed amount for all, whether we do 5 km or 30 km a day to go to work, and a bonus for heavy riders who travel more than 12,000 km per year”, the presentation of the system to the Council of Ministers on July 7 and the statements that followed made it possible to learn more about this bill. 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 that of 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 to 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.