"It's absurd": Accused of pushing consumption, the energy check could disappear

Are we heading towards the end of the energy check ? Nine years after its creation, this state aid, intended to help low-income households pay their energy bills or certain renovation works, and which has not been revalued since 2019, is targeted in a mission report from the General Inspectorate of Finance , that of the Environment and Sustainable Development. Generalized in 2018, it is now between 48 and 277 euros.

This aid is part of the 92 billion public aid package that is about to be reviewed. Distributed to 5.5 million households (or 20% of households), the energy voucher would harm sustainable development according to this report, because it would encourage the recipient to consume more.

"The mission considers that any support for energy consumption goes against energy sobriety . In addition, it has a partially unfavorable impact on biodiversity for the part relating to carbon energies. The mission has therefore included it in the expenditure to be investigated in more depth," the report reads.

"The energy check has become the scapegoat. It is one of the symbols that shows the extent to which we are turning away from everything that is solidarity, state action, public service... It's a catastrophe," Françoise Thiebaud, a member of the civic and secular consumer association, laments to RMC .

According to the mission's report, the energy check runs counter to energy efficiency. While Manuel Domergue, the director of studies at the Housing Foundation, doesn't deny this, he insists it's the wrong fight. "We're talking about people who are in energy poverty and earn less than €11,000 per year, to whom the State pays €150 per year. To say that these people who heat their homes at 12 degrees Celsius are contributing to climate change is completely absurd," he laments.

He proposes other options, in the medium term, "by allowing poor households to be in more efficient housing, by carrying out energy renovations , to make savings later."

In 2024, the elimination of automatic registration, linked to the disappearance of the housing tax, had already reduced the number of beneficiaries. According to associations, nearly a million eligible people had not received it. An online counter had been opened late, but less than 18% of new beneficiaries took advantage of it, according to the FNCCR.

For 2025, the automatic system has been partially restored, but not for everyone. The check will be sent in November, eight months after the usual deadline, and the counter will remain open until February 2026. A deadline deemed too short, according to the associations.

Several speakers called for a 40% increase to keep pace with rising energy prices. "The basic electricity rate jumped by 41.5% including tax between 2019 and March 2025," they pointed out.