The social bonus (electricity and gas) is a tool for saving on electricity and natural gas bills aimed at helping families in financial difficulty and large families. This tool was made operational by the Regulatory Authority for Energy, Networks and the Environment (ARERA) and translates into the provision of a discount on the electricity and/or natural gas bill.

How to get the social bonus (new for 2021)

From 1 January 2021, social bonuses for economic hardship are automatically recognized to citizens/family units who are entitled to it, without them having to submit an application (Legislative Decree 124/2019, converted with amendments by Law 157/2019).

Beneficiaries are:

• domestic customers (i.e. the user account must serve premises used as family homes) who are in a state of economic hardship and who have an active electricity supply contract (i.e. the service must be in progress; supplies temporarily suspended due to non-payment are also considered active);
• direct domestic customers (i.e. it must serve premises used as family homes) who are in a state of economic hardship and who have an active natural gas supply contract (i.e. the service must be in progress; supplies temporarily suspended due to non-payment are also considered active), with an installed meter of class no higher than G6; furthermore, the natural gas must be used for heating and/or cooking and/or producing domestic hot water;
• indirect domestic customers who are in a state of economic hardship and who use a centralised supply of natural gas in their home (i.e. a condominium supply).

It is considered economic hardship, the condition of a domestic customer who belongs to:

• a family unit with ISEE indicator (Equivalent Economic Situation Indicator) not exceeding 9,530 euros, or
• a family unit with at least 4 dependent children (large family) and ISEE indicator not exceeding 20,000 euros (NOTE: Legislative Decree 34/2023 has established that, from the second quarter of 2023 until 31 December 2023 the ISEE threshold will be increased to 30,000 euros, in relation to the benefits recognized to families with at least four dependent children), or
• a family unit entitled to Citizenship Income or Citizenship Pension.
• limited to electricity and gas social bonuses, the ISEE threshold value for access to benefits for the year 2023 has been raised to 15,000 euros from Law 29 December 2022 n. 197

The state of economic hardship is certified by INPS on the basis of Single Substitutive Declaration (DSU) submitted by direct and indirect domestic customers.

One of the members of the ISEE family unit must be the holder of an active electricity and/or natural gas supply contract with a domestic tariff, or use an active condominium supply of natural gas.

=> Each family unit is entitled to only one bonus per type - electricity, gas - per year of DSU competence (so-called "uniqueness constraint").

What is needed to obtain the social bonus

For interested customers, in possession of the necessary requirements, it will be sufficient for the citizen/family unit to present the Single Substitutive Declaration (DSU) every year, starting from 2021, to obtain the ISEE certification useful for the various facilitated social benefits (e.g.: maternity allowance, school meals, baby bonus, etc.)

For further information on how to fill out the DSU and request the ISEE, please refer to the INPS website ( LINK ).

If the family unit falls into one of the three conditions of economic hardship indicated above, INPS will send its data (in compliance with the privacy legislation and the provisions that the Authority has defined in the matter of automatic recognition of social bonuses for economic hardship) to the SII1 (Integrated Information System managed by the Single Buyer company) which will cross-reference the data received with those relating to electricity and/or natural gas supplies, thus allowing the bonuses to be automatically paid to those entitled.

=> Any applications submitted from 1 January 2021 onwards cannot be accepted by the Municipalities and CAF and will not be valid for obtaining the bonus in any case.

• Duration and recognition procedure of the social bonus

The social bonus is recognized for 12 months.

From 2022, the social bonus recognition procedure follows different timing and methods for the 2 services (electricity and gas) and for the type of supply (direct or indirect).

1. 1. Direct supplies - electricity and gas

      Ordinarily, following the submission of the DSU by the citizen, in cases where the ISEE of the ISEE family unit falls within the thresholds for access to the bonus, the system normally takes approximately 1 month to:

      • identify the direct supply registered to one of the members of the ISEE family unit (where it exists);
      • carry out the required admissibility checks on the supply;
      • transmit to the competent operators the data necessary to provide the bonus in the bill to those entitled. The bonus must be applied by the competent operators in the first bill issued following the receipt of such data. In each bill, the bonus quota proportional to the period of time to which the bill refers is applied. Therefore, the actual application of the bonus in the bill depends on the billing frequency of the competent operator.
   2. Centralized condominium gas supplies

The timing for issuing the domiciled bank transfer with which the social gas bonus for condominium supplies is recognized depends mainly on the timing and methods (completeness and correctness) of the citizen's response to the communication with which he is asked to declare the PDR identifying the condominium supply that serves the home of one of the members of the household. In the event of a positive outcome of the checks on what the citizen has declared, the bonus is recognized through the issuance of a domiciled bank transfer that remains in payment until the end of the relevant benefit period (indicated in the communication recognizing the bonus) and can be collected by the beneficiary at any post office in the country.

Amount of social bonus

The amount of the social electricity bonus is determined by ARERA according to current legislation and is differentiated based on the number of members of the ISEE family unit.

The amount of the social gas bonus is also determined by ARERA according to current legislation and is differentiated based on the climate zone to which the PDR belongs, the number of members of the ISEE family unit and the category of use associated with the supply.

=> For further details on the value of the bonus for economic hardship expected for the year 2023, please refer to the ARERA website (https://www.arera.it/it/consumatori/bonus_val.htm ).