Errors on ‘heating cheques’ cost Danish government 83 million kroner
Incorrect calculations related in 13,800 households receiving a government subsidy they were not eligible for, costing the state millions.
Data processing errors have resulted in thousands of ineligible households receiving a government benefit, the “heating cheque” or varmecheck, a benefit aimed at helping households struggling to pay high energy bills, the Danish Energy Agency (Energistyrelsen) said in a statement on Monday.
The issue relates to incorrect calculations of household incomes, the agency said. The cost of the issue for the government is 83 million kroner.
“We’ve had a lot of attention on ensuring the correct data management and prior to our own review, [financial services company] Deloitte reviewed the method for sourcing data,” Energy Agency director Kristoffer Böttzauw said in the statement.
The households which received the incorrect payments are not obliged to return them because of the error by authorities.
The issue is not the first of its kind in recent months in which the government benefit has been sent to the wrong recipients.
The one-off payment of 6,000 kroner for lower income families was approved by parliament last year and paid out in autumn as part of the government’s response to inflation and high energy prices in 2022.
But an error in registered information resulted in a large number of households which did not qualify for the relief cash receiving it anyway.
In that case, the national “BBR” database, which contains information about the type of heating systems in housing, was used to determine who would receive the money. But some of its information proved to be outdated.
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Data processing errors have resulted in thousands of ineligible households receiving a government benefit, the “heating cheque” or varmecheck, a benefit aimed at helping households struggling to pay high energy bills, the Danish Energy Agency (Energistyrelsen) said in a statement on Monday.
The issue relates to incorrect calculations of household incomes, the agency said. The cost of the issue for the government is 83 million kroner.
“We’ve had a lot of attention on ensuring the correct data management and prior to our own review, [financial services company] Deloitte reviewed the method for sourcing data,” Energy Agency director Kristoffer Böttzauw said in the statement.
The households which received the incorrect payments are not obliged to return them because of the error by authorities.
The issue is not the first of its kind in recent months in which the government benefit has been sent to the wrong recipients.
The one-off payment of 6,000 kroner for lower income families was approved by parliament last year and paid out in autumn as part of the government’s response to inflation and high energy prices in 2022.
But an error in registered information resulted in a large number of households which did not qualify for the relief cash receiving it anyway.
In that case, the national “BBR” database, which contains information about the type of heating systems in housing, was used to determine who would receive the money. But some of its information proved to be outdated.
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