Energy voucher for 3.5 million homes
For more than a weekYou can apply for an energy voucher. Its maximum amount this year is PLN 1,200. According to government estimates, the benefit will be used to support approximately 3.5 million low-income families. The legislature has designated local governments to carry out this task. They will accept applications for: energy voucher until September 30, 2024, and they will have time to consider each of them60 days from the date of its correct presentation.This means that local governments will have to serve several million additional customers in just a few months. Some of them have already implemented appropriate procedures. One example is the Poznań Benefits Center (PCŚ), which has decided to offer additional office hours for those interested in submitting a paper application. Therefore, PCŚ will also be open this Saturday. Poznań officials encourage you to use these additional hours to apply for an energy voucher.
Energy voucher 2024 – no administrative decision
The granting of the benefit does not require an administrative decision, and the applicant will be notified by email about the granting of the voucher.
– Once again, the administrative decision was waived as a way of processing the application and granting the benefit, which constitutes a statutory exception to the general principle arising from the Code of Administrative Procedure. Decisions will be issued in the event of refusal to grant an energy voucher, cancellation or alteration of the right to a benefit or reimbursement in the event of a benefit granted unduly. The lack of need to issue positive decisions is certainly a convenience for local government administration.– notes Dr. Patryk Kuzior, assistant professor at WSB University.
Targeted subsidy for local governments
In accordance with the established procedure, the head of the commune, mayor or city president sends the applicant information about the granting of the benefit to the email address provided by him. Of course, as long as the applicant indicates such address in the energy voucher payment request.
– For the payment of benefits, the municipalities will receive a specific subsidy from the relevant voivodes. Its amount will also take into account the costs of paying the energy voucher, but it was agreed that it would be 3% of the total amount of subsidies paid in the municipality. Thus, for each voucher issued in full, the municipality will receive from PLN 9 to PLN 36 depending on its value. – says Dr.
Expert: “A better solution would be to delegate the voucher to ZUS”
Lawyer Daria Pośpiech-Przeor questions whether the legislator has adequately delegated the task of administration energy voucher.
– The above regulations seem very beneficial to citizens, but is the legislator’s intention really free from flaws? – asks legal advisor Daria Pośpiech-Przeor, partner at the law firm Żuk Pośpiech, in an interview with Gazeta Prawna.
According to lawyer Pośpiech-Przeor, the burden of local governments is to pay energy voucher this is not the best idea.
– Local governments were overburdened with the processing of 3.5 million to 4.6 million additional administrative cases relating to energy vouchers. Concerns in this regard were raised, among others, by: Ministry of Family, Labor and Social Policy, pointing out that the determination of the right to energy voucher using dedicated IT systems to deal with the above mentioned problems The benefits represent a huge load for these systems and, in terms of efficiency, they are not prepared to deal with millions of additional queries (e.g. on income data) accumulated over a period of just a few months. Perhaps a better solution would be to delegate this task, for example, to ZUS, where the creation of infrastructure for the payment of energy vouchers would make more sense in the context of the Social Climate Fund, of which Poland will also become a beneficiary. 2026 – notes lawyer Pośpiech-Prior.
