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Denmark’s state auditor to review potential errors in energy relief payments

Ritzau/The Local
Ritzau/The Local - [email protected]
Denmark’s state auditor to review potential errors in energy relief payments
Denmark's state auditor is to scrutinise possible erroneous payments of energy relief money to households. File photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix

The Danish state auditor Rigsrevisionen is to scrutinise payments of 6,000-kroner one-off relief to households impacted by high gas bills, after reports that many payments went to ineligible recipients.

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The state auditor will investigate conditions surrounding the payment of tax-free relief sums of 6,000 kroner to eligible houses last month.

The relief, which was targeted at households likely to be worst affected by high gas prices, cost the government around 2.5 billion kroner.

Danish broadcasters TV2 and DR both report that the national auditor will look at problems surrounding the payments, after a meeting with the state accountant Statsrevisorerne.

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The one-off payouts, agreed by parliament in March, were sent last month to over 400,000 households which met the criteria set to receive the relief.  

Households with a collective pre-tax income of under 706,000 kroner were eligible for the one-off cash boosts. Additionally, the households must be primarily heated by individual gas heaters, electronic radiators or be located in a district heating area in which the heating is produced by at least 65 percent gas.

But due to inaccuracies in an online database that requires homeowners to self-report information on their home, including gas boilers, many people are believed to have received the cheques in error. The government said in August it would investigate the issue. 

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said at a briefing earlier this week that she did not regret the government’s decision to spend 2.5 billion kroner on the heating relief.

“We have not regretted providing targeted help but it is obviously regrettable that some problems have occurred in the process,” she said.

Energy Minister Dan Jørgensen said in comments to broadcaster TV2 in August that the government was aware of a risk errors could be made when parliament adopted the law needed to implement the payouts.

But the decision to pay money directly into recipients’ accounts was nevertheless taken “to get the money out there quickly”, he said.

READ ALSO: Up to 70 Danes offer to pay energy money back to government

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