By December 10, the heating allowance will have been paid to those who have submitted an application at the end of the month and were also beneficiaries during the winter season 2020/2021. This is provided for in the Joint Ministerial Decision published on Monday night.

The new beneficiaries that arose either from the expansion of the criteria, income and property, or due to the granting of the allowance to new categories of citizens who use other forms of heating, such as natural gas, district heating or firewood (in areas with over 2,500 inhabitants and under 3,500 inhabitants that were not included in the list of beneficiaries last year), they will receive the advance payment by the end of December. Provided that they will have applied for the heating allowance by the end of November.

The myHeating platform for the heating allowance

According to the KYA, the amount of heating allowance is paid in three installments:

• By December 30, 2021 for all purchases billed by November 30, 2021. Prerequisite is the registration of the required data until December 15, 2021.
• By February 28, 2022 for all purchases billed by January 31, 2022. The required information must be entered by February 15, 2022.
• By April 29, 2022 for all purchases billed by March 31, 2022. Requirement to register the required data by April 15, 2022. Especially for natural gas, purchasing documents for the period 1.10.2021 to 31.03.2022 will be registered by May 31, 2022, with the date of issuance of the payment document by May 16, 2022. The corresponding allowance amount will be paid until June 15, 2022.

The above installments are paid after deducting the advance payment.

Criteria for granting the heating allowance

Natural persons are entitled to a heating allowance if they meet the following criteria:

a. Income

Their annual total family income, regardless of its source of origin, real and presumed, amounts to up to 14,000 euros for an unmarried debtor or a debtor in a widowed or separated state. At 20,000 euros for a married debtor or the married persons or the parties to the cohabitation agreement who submit a separate tax return (judicial support or bankruptcy), or the married persons who submit a tax return based on c. b of par. 4 of article 67 of n. 4172/2013 or natural persons who have entered into a cohabitation agreement and have submitted a joint tax return without children, which is increased by 3,000 euros for each child. Likewise, for a single-parent family, the aforementioned income amounts to 23,000 euros. An amount that is increased by 3,000 euros for each child after the first. The annual total family income does not include that which is cumulatively exempt from income tax and the solidarity contribution.

To determine the marital status, the number of children, as well as the income criteria, the data of the Personal Income Tax Return, for the tax year 2020. If the spouses or cohabiting partners submit a separate declaration, the largest of the number of children declared in one of the two (2) declarations is taken.

b. Real estate

The total value of the immovable property, as it is determined for the calculation of the supplementary EN.F.I.A., which results from the act of administrative determination EN.F.I.A. of the year 2021, debtor, spouse or party to a cohabitation agreement and dependent, according to Law 4172/2013, children, listed in the income tax return for the tax year 2020, not to exceed the amount of 180,000 euros for unmarried, debtors in widowhood or estranged status and the amount of 300,000 euros for married or cohabiting couples and single-parent families.

Setting the amount for the heating allowance

1. In granting the heating allowance, the data of the municipalities and settlements of the Greek Territory are used. They are used as they are reflected in the Appendix, based on the calculation of degree days. These are an indicator of the severity of the climate of an area. They are taken into account in the calculation of the heating loads of a building. As in the calculation of the required energy consumption for its heating.
2. Each beneficiary is granted a subsidy for purchases of subsidized types of heating fuel and thermal energy through district heating. Its amount amounts to three hundred euros (300) euros. This amount is multiplied by the subsidy rate per settlement in which the main residence is located. It is also increased by 20% for each dependent child of the beneficiary. The amount resulting from the above cannot be less than one hundred (100) euros. Nor should it exceed the amount of seven hundred and fifty (750) euros at most.
3. Each beneficiary is entitled to a subsidy for only one type of heating fuel or only thermal energy through district heating. The allowance is granted on the condition that the beneficiary makes purchases of the subsidized types of heating fuel or thermal energy of a value greater than or equal to twice the amount of the above entitled allowance in accordance with paras. 2 and 3, from 1 October 2021 until 31 March 2022 and especially for heating oil from 15 October 2021. Date on which its disposition begins according to c. a' of par. 2 of article 73 of n. 2960/2001. For firewood, the subsidy is granted on the condition that purchases have been made from June 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022. In case the purchase value falls short of the above limit, the beneficiary receives an allowance equal to half (1/2) of the value of the purchases made during the same period.

Value of purchases

Especially for heating oil purchases, the value corresponds to the one calculated based on the price per liter defined in this document.

In order to determine the value of heating oil purchases, a price of 1.16 euros per liter is set.

4. It is stipulated that for the cases of settlements that may not be included in the Annex, for the application of the subsidy rate, the Average Subsidy Rate of the Postal Code to which the settlement falls will be taken. Accordingly, for the cases where a Postal Code may not be included in the Appendix, the Average Subsidy Rate of the Municipality to which the settlement belongs will be taken to apply the subsidy rate. The Average Subsidy Rate of the Municipality will also be taken into account in cases where there is no settlement within the boundaries of the respective Postal Code.