Labor offices will contact people who stay with suppliers of last resort
Updates: 02/17/2022 10:40
Released: 17.02.2022, 10:37
Prague – Labor offices will start targeting people who remain with the so-called suppliers of last resort (DPI) next week. They will be challenged to switch to a regular energy supplier. The Minister of Labor Marian Jurečka (KDU-ČSL) said this at a press conference today. DPI contracts expire after six months, with most customers expected in mid-April. According to its head Jozef Síkely (for STAN), the Ministry of Industry is considering the creation of a special trader who would possibly offer social tariffs to poorer families or small companies as one of the future solutions to the problem with expensive energies.
Several energy traders ended last autumn. Thus, for example, 900,000 clients of Bohemia Energy switched to suppliers of last resort. The advances have risen many times over. The clients of other companies that have ended are the same. DPI provides delivery for half a year.
According to Jurečka, 96 percent of 900,000 clients already have a new supplier and a standard contract. So there are about 36,000 people left. “This week, we agreed with the suppliers of last resort that the employment offices will next year target households where there may be a risk of disconnection. We will follow the path of specific contacting,” Jurečka said. According to him, the authorities will obtain the necessary data from the DPI.
The Ministry of Industry, as one of the variants of the solution with expensive energies, is considering the establishment of a special trader in the future, which would eventually offer a social tariff to poorer households or smaller companies. According to Síkela, the state can “create a separate entity”, set aside a part of a state or semi-state company or issue a tender for a supplier. “We are at the level of theses,” said the Minister of Industry.
People for whom 35 percent of income in Prague and 30 percent elsewhere are not enough to pay for adequate housing can receive a housing allowance from the state. The owners of the apartment or permanently registered tenants, subtenants and people in approved buildings for recreation are entitled to it. The benefit then corresponds to the difference between the expenditures up to the state of the set normative costs and 0.3 times or 0.35 times the income. For this year, these standards have increased significantly due to higher energy prices. According to Jurečka, since the beginning of January, 21,000 households have applied for this support. People can get information about the use of the contribution on the website www.energetickyprispevek.cz. It was also received by the recipients via SIPO. It will also be distributed by the social administration in a letter announcing an increase in pensions.
According to the Ministry of Labor, they paid 153,700 housing allowances last December. A year earlier, they provided 160,400. A total of 6.6 billion crowns was spent on this benefit last year. It was 335 million crowns less than in the first covid year 2020.