How does the one-off payment for gas and district heating work this December?

Created: 11/29/2022, 09:40 am

A standard gas meter: To make this a little more pleasant to look at, a one-off payment is coming this December.

But how exactly is that supposed to work?

© Jens Büttner / dpa

In order to relieve people in Germany in view of the high energy costs, there is a one-off payment for gas and district heating customers in December.

But how does it work?

And what happens afterwards?

Berlin – In order to cushion the high energy costs, the state will take over the down payment for gas and district heating customers for December.

Private households and smaller companies with an annual consumption of less than 1.5 million kilowatt hours should benefit.

Certain facilities in the care and education sector, such as day care centers and youth welfare, as well as in medical care, receive emergency aid even if their consumption is higher.

According to the government, the relief is “in the higher single-digit billions” and is to be financed from the Economic Stabilization Fund.

How does the one-time payment work?

Households with a direct contract with a supplier are end consumers and are therefore generally exempt from the December down payment.

Anyone who has given direct debit authorization does not have to do anything else - the supplier is responsible.

Anyone who has placed a standing order can change it for December;

if you don't do this, you should receive a credit note or the amount will be offset in the next statement.

If you transfer monthly, you can skip it in December.

The amount of the relief is calculated on the basis of one twelfth of the annual consumption that the supplier had forecast for the so-called extraction point in September 2022 and the gas price in December.

The prices, which in some cases increased significantly at the end of the year, are to be taken into account.

In the case of district heating, the amount of the September bill and a "flat-rate adjustment factor" should be used, which takes into account the price increases up to December.

What about tenants and landlords?

If tenants regulate the supply through their landlords, the December relief will only be passed on with the next annual heating bill.

This can take time: landlords have one year to create and present the statement.

However, landlords have to inform about the estimated credit as early as this December.

In the worst case, however, tenants will not find out how high the relief actually is until December 2023.

The government argues that many landlords have not yet adjusted monthly payments to the increased prices.

The price increases will therefore take effect later and then the relief would also help.

Special cases are tenants who have received an increase in operating costs in the past nine months.

You do not have to pay the increase contribution in December.

In buildings with gas central heating, a quarter of the operating costs incurred in December do not have to be paid if the lease was renewed in the past nine months.

The same applies here: If the tenants do not take action, the landlord must take the excess money into account when calculating the utility bill.

And from January?

In the coming year, the price brakes for gas and electricity will take effect.

They are intended to provide relief for households and industry in the face of high and rising energy costs.

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The gas price brake applies from March 2023 to the end of April 2024 - but there should also be retrospective relief for January and February in March.

Households and small companies should get 80 percent of their previous year's consumption for twelve cents per kilowatt hour.

A capped gross price of 9.5 cents applies to district heating customers.

Above that, the contractually agreed prices are due – so there is a high incentive to save.

The electricity price brake works in the same way.

The gross electricity price for private households and small companies is to be capped at 40 cents per kilowatt hour - gross means including taxes, levies, levies and network charges.

Here, too, a basic requirement of 80 percent of the previous year's consumption applies, everything above that is more expensive.

The federal government decided on the one-time payment a few weeks earlier in response to the increased energy prices as a result of the Ukraine war.