ENERGY

Thousands of electricity customers with an unusually large consumption may have received electricity support incorrectly. Therefore, Försäkringskassan now wants to introduce a cap before the next payment to households.
– We think it is needed, says Fredrik Falk, head of operations at the authority.

Försäkringskassan wants to see a ceiling on electricity consumption before the second electricity subsidy for households. This is what the authority writes in a referral response.

According to the proposal, households should be able to receive a maximum of electricity support for a consumption of 12,500 kilowatt hours for November and December, which according to Försäkringskassan corresponds to an annual consumption of around 50,000 kilowatt hours.

Incorrect support

– We think a ceiling is needed to reduce the risk of errors. With a cap, we can potentially prevent incorrect payments where, for example, it could be traders instead of consumers, says Fredrik Falk, head of operations at Försäkringskassan.

The authority thus suspects that electricity consumers who also run businesses may have incorrectly received money in the first payment.

In the consultation response, the authority writes that “a few eligible beneficiaries have consumptions that are so high that they are likely, at least partially, for other than consumer purposes”.

Saves 60 million

According to Försäkringskassan, a total of 7,222 electricity customers have received support for a consumption of over 50,000 kilowatt hours per year in the first payment.

Of those, around 1,000 have consumed over 100,000 kilowatt hours.

– That is what we have been able to see based on initial reported consumption. Then what it is about for households, or whether it is reasonable or not, others will probably have to say about. But there are those who have an electricity contract for consumer purposes but who also run a business, says Fredrik Falk.

According to the Swedish Energy Agency, a normal-sized villa consumes around 20,000 kilowatt hours per year.

According to Försäkringskassan, a cap would mean that SEK 60 million less would be paid out.