“I don’t know how to pay.” The traps of life never end. He noticed it, despite himself, an 84-year-old elderly man from Arcidosso, on Mount Amiata, who with a pension of just 850 euros was handed a gas bill of 1,150 euros. The disbelief was replaced by the fear of not making it, then fortunately through word of mouth help arrived from Federconsumatori who assisted the pensioner who, in the end, obtained the payment in installments and concluded the procedure for reinstatement in the protected market . «Unfortunately – he explains Giorgio Romualdi, president of Federconsumatori Grosseto – what this elderly gentleman ran into is quite common. Next week I already have about twenty appointments between Follonica, Monte Argentario and Amiata to take care of similar situations. Which are putting those over 75 who have ended up outside the protected market, which offered them more guarantees than price control, in serious difficulty. Those who live in a mountain area, where gas consumption is very high, have found themselves in the free market tariff regime and thus spend a lot of money. But not everyone can afford it.”
But what exactly is happening? From 10 January, the free market for everyone took over for gas consumption, but some categories of people can remain in the protected market: these are over 75s, people with disabilities, those who live on small islands, recipients of the “bonus power”. «Even if with the government Melons the ISEE threshold has been lowered to 9 thousand euros, while previously it was set at 15 thousand) – underlines Romualdi – Many selling companies, between the end of 2022 and the first half of 2023, with the prices of the raw material exploding due to the war in Ukraine, have proposed customers to change the gas supply contract even if it had not formally expired. After the spring and summer of last year, when the heating was not used, elderly people began to receive bills monster, and many have lost the ground beneath their feet. In the meantime, the companies should have prepared procedures for requests for reinstatement in the protected market, but no one did so. Something that has only happened in recent times, and not by all operators. We began receiving the first reports in January this year. On the other hand, an eighty year old obviously has a lot of difficulty managing this type of request, especially via IT. From the moment in which reinstatement in the protected market is requested to when it occurs, a minimum of 30 to 50 days pass during which one continues to pay for methane at the old prices: 90 cents per cubic meter compared to the current 30 cents: the triple”.
To inform people, Federconsumatori Grosseto, in collaboration with Spi Cgil, is organizing public meetings dedicated to the transition from the protected market to the free one. On these occasions, several people became aware of what was happening. «Some time ago – explains Romualdi – in Follonica, during an initiative, an over eighty-year-old said he felt safe because he had a contract with the protected market. A week later he desperately looked for me because he had received a bill that he didn’t know how to pay. Having verified that in February-March 2023 the selling company had proposed changing the tariff without him realizing it, I took care of it. I immediately called the toll-free number: the operator responded abruptly, saying that they didn’t have the request forms ready yet and hanging up the phone. After a while they called me back apologizing and sending me the request form which I immediately forwarded. Even if the customer will have to wait to see it accepted, despite having the right to reinstatement.”
«As Federconsumatori – concludes Romualdi – we have also made many appeals to Arera, but it is difficult to demonstrate how the proposal was communicated because there is a lack of certification legislation».
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
