how to request gas aid, amount and requirements in 2025

With the aim of alleviating the effects derived from high prices on energy bills, in 2018 the Government of Spain promoted the creation of aid to reduce the cost of electricity, the so-called social electric bonus. This program sought to alleviate the economic burden that some basic services entail, especially in the coldest months of the year.

However, the cost of bills continues to be a headache for many families in the country, which is why the creation of a new aid, the Thermal Social Bonus – or Social Gas Bonus – has been promoted. This new discount seeks to guarantee access to natural gas, an essential resource that was not being used in all homes, especially in those in a state of vulnerability.

Benefits of the thermal social bonus

The 2025 thermal social bonus is an aid mechanism that allows all those families in vulnerable situations to obtain discounts on their gas bills. This is closely related to the electric social bonus, so this new aid will be granted to all those beneficiaries of the electric social bonus on December 31 of the previous year, as long as they have contracted the Voluntary Price for Small Consumers (PVPC) with a power less than 10 kW.

Types of aid from the thermal social bonus

Consumers who want to qualify for the thermal social bonus will be divided into several categories, assessing criteria such as income level and family composition with the aim of defining their level of vulnerability. In this way, to calculate the type of aid, one of the bases takes as reference the number of people in the home and the Multiple Effects Public Income Indicator (IPREM).

Thus, vulnerable consumers start from the base of a single person. In this case, the income level must be less than 12,600 euros per year (equivalent to 1.5 times the IPREM of 14 payments). From there, each cohabitation unit will add 0.3 IPREM per additional person of legal age to the income threshold, and 0.5 IPREM for each minor.

In this way, some examples of figures for vulnerable consumers are the following:

Likewise, all large families with a valid certificate, pensioners of the Social Security system due to retirement or permanent disability – who receive the minimum amount in force at any given time for said types of pension and do not receive other income – will be considered vulnerable consumers. greater than 500 euros annually -, and recipients of the Minimum Living Wage.

On the other hand, consumers considered severely vulnerable must have an annual income equal to or less than 50% of the thresholds established for consumers simply considered vulnerable. In this way, some examples of severe vulnerable consumers are:

More specifically, in extreme cases such as those considered to be severely vulnerable consumers at risk of exclusion, they must not only comply with the stricter requirements previously mentioned, but must also receive support from social services. In addition, these homes have the additional feature that their gas supply cannot be cut off even if they face non-payments.

Finally, there is also a group of people who are open to accessing the thermal social bonus despite not meeting all of the above characteristics. These are single-parent families, people with a recognized disability greater than or equal to 33%, people with degree II or III dependency or victims of gender violence or terrorism.

How much money does the thermal social bonus save?

The amounts that each person or family unit can receive thanks to the thermal social bonus not only depend on the degree of vulnerability of the consumer, the amount is also based on the climatic zone where the applicant lives. Thus, the higher the average temperature during the year, the less the aid will be. These are divided as follows:

Alpha Zone: Canary Islands.

Zone A: Coast of Almería and coastline of Cádiz, Málaga and Melilla.

Zone B: Balearic Islands and coast of Tarragona, Castellón, Valencia, Alicante, Murcia, part of Córdoba, Seville, Huelva, Cádiz, Málaga and Ceuta.

Zone C: Jaén, Cáceres, Toledo, Badajoz, part of Granada and Huelva, Murcia, Valencia, Castellón, Barcelona and Girona, A Coruña, Pontevedra, part of Orense, Oviedo, Santander, Bilbao and San Sebastián.

Zone D: Madrid, Ciudad Real, Albacete, Cáceres, Lérida, Huesca, Zaragoza, part of Teruel and Guadalajara, Pamplona, ​​Vitoria, Lugo, Palencia, Zamora, Valladolid, part of Salamanca and Segovia.

Zone E: Catalan, Aragonese and Navarrese Pyrenees, León, Burgos, Soria, Ávila, part of Segovia, Teruel and Iberian system.