A hardship fund can get money back if you paid an extremely high price for heating oil, liquid gas, coal or wood in 2022. You can apply for a grant online.
Hamm – heating was extremely expensive in 2022. The prices for heating oil, liquid gas, coal and wood skyrocketed in the years of war and crisis. Consumers in Germany can get back part of the heating costs via a hardship fund. However, you have to take action yourself and submit an application.
Online application for the heating subsidy: This is how money is returned
Anyone who bought heating oil, liquid gas, wood pellets, wood chips, wood briquettes, split logs and coal or coke – i.e. so-called “non-grid-bound energy sources” – at high prices between January 1st and December 1st, 2022 can apply for a refund, provided he or she can prove the purchase.
You receive the subsidy for 80 percent of the cost share that goes beyond doubling a fixed reference price. A calculator shows whether you are eligible to apply and how much the repayment will be. However, there is not more than 2000 euros per household; the subsidy is capped at this level.
Online application for the heating cost subsidy: Activated from May
Important for everyone who wants the subsidy: Without an application, there is no money. The Application can be made online via the fuel aid. With the help of this procedure, hardship support for private households in numerous federal states can be applied for from May 2nd. Accordingly, the application is activated on the platform as follows:
- from May 2, 2023: Bremen, Hamburg
- from May 4, 2023: Hesse, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, Schleswig-Holstein
- from May 8, 2023: Baden-Württemberg, Brandenburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland, Saxony and Thuringia
In the case of fuel aid, the free application should be able to be made in about 15 minutes, registration is not necessary. The processing of the application takes about six weeks, as stated on the website. There are separate contact points for North Rhine-Westphalia (starting mid-May 2023), Bavaria (from May 15) and Berlin (deadline June 30). The application deadline is October 20th, 2023. Since the budget is limited, you should not wait until the last day.
Online application for the heating cost subsidy: Possible in NRW from mid-May
In NRW alone, there are up to 1.2 million households that are eligible to apply and that heat with heating oil, liquid gas or wood. Of the 1.8 billion euros that the budget committee of the Bundestag released for hardship aid at the end of March 2023, around 380 million euros are attributable to the largest German federal state.
According to the NRW Ministry for Homeland, Municipal Affairs, Building and Digitization, the bund.ID or an Elster ID is required for the application – this is intended to authenticate the applicant and prevent misuse. A BundID account can already be created.