Chamber wants to use ‘wry gas billions’ to compensate for high energy bills

Now that the gas price has skyrocketed, leading economists estimate that revenues could soon be five billion euros higher. The economists calculated this at the request of this site.

VVD party leader Sophie Hermans says that the VVD ‘wants to limit the increase in people’s energy bills as much as possible’. “Hence the previous measures last year. We will definitely look into this,” she said. By this she refers to the possibilities of using the extra income due to the high gas price to meet the costs of higher energy bills for citizens.

At the end of last year, the then caretaker cabinet came up with about 400 euros. But last month it turned out that a household with average consumption annually spends more than 1,300 euros more on gas and electricity bills than was expected on the basis of the figures from 2021. A household with average consumption therefore pays 110 euros more per month than last year. calculated the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS). However, the cabinet says it will only look at compensation in the spring. Parties in the House believe that this is taking far too long because people are already confronted with much higher burdens.

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The SP group wants the extra income from the high gas price to be used to cover the energy bill. “That is a much better idea than people ‘have to be patient”, says SP MP Renske Leijten, referring to the cabinet, which does not want to make a decision until April or May at the earliest. PvdA leader Lilianne Ploumen also believes that the cabinet cannot afford to make people who cannot pay the energy bill wait any longer.

MP Pieter Omtzigt goes one step further. He believes that the current coalition agreement is ripe for the waste bin because it is ‘completely outdated’. Moreover, he believes that the wrong people are taking advantage of the 400 euros that was previously earmarked for this. “The reduction of the energy tax is completely focused on electricity. The people who suffer the most from this are precisely the people in a draughty, gas-fired rental home,” argues the MP who split from the CDA. “With the current measures, the advantage goes to the Tesla driver who uses a relatively large amount of electricity. The cabinet is allowing the wrong target group to benefit.” He wants to compensate people with low and middle incomes who get into trouble “with a substantial rent discount for people who live in a drafty house, with an EF or G label”.

The cabinet does not want to discuss how the energy bill will be compensated until the spring. Then the cabinet must also come up with solutions for a substantial wish list of the Senate. A majority of the Senate does not think it is appropriate to cut back on youth care and wants a higher state pension and extra compensation for students who have had to borrow a lot.

MP Omtzigt points out that the allowance affair has already shown that ‘it is urgent’. “If you wait too long to help, these people are already in debt restructuring. Then the original amount of 300 to 400 euros that they have to pay more has already ended in a financial drama. There are groups that are already unable to tolerate this increase.”