Beneficiaries

The bonus for physical discomfort can be obtained by all domestic customers suffering from a serious illness or domestic customers who own the electricity supply where a person suffering from a serious illness lives and is forced to use electro-medical equipment (identified by the Decree of the Ministry of Health of 13 January 2011) necessary to maintain life.
The bonus for physical hardship can be combined with that for economic hardship (electricity - gas), if the eligibility requirements are met.

How to request the bonus for physical discomfort

At the moment there is no automatic disbursement for the bonus for physical discomfort, therefore, to obtain this bonus, the customer who meets the requirements must submit the appropriate application to the municipality of residence or to another designated by the municipality (CAF enabled).
The documents needed to submit the application are:

• ASL certificate certifying the serious health condition, the need to use electro-medical equipment for life support, the type of equipment used and the hours of daily use, the address where the equipment is installed;
• identity document and tax code of the applicant and of the patient if different from the applicant;
• completed form B (available on form B );
• POD code (energy delivery point identifier);
• committed or available power of the supply;
• telephone number that is always reachable so that the distributor can contact the customer concerned in the event of scheduled disconnection procedures (these users are in fact identified as non-disconnectable.

The distribution company, once the relevant checks have been carried out, applies the component of the bonus for physical discomfort starting from the first day of the second month following the transmission of the information by the Municipality via SGate.

Conditions for eligibility for the bonus for physical discomfort

In order for the bonus for physical discomfort to be recognised, the following conditions must be met:

• for each person who is in serious health conditions, compensation is provided for only one sampling point;
• the location of the electro-medical equipment must coincide with that of the collection point for which the bonus for physical discomfort is requested;
• the applicant for the bonus must be the holder of the supply contract;
• the type of electro-medical equipment must be that of the decree of 13.01.2011;
• the ASL certification must indicate the intensity of use of the electro-medical equipment (in the absence of this indication, the minimum intensity of use is automatically assigned by Sgate

Value and Delivery

The value of the bonus for physical discomfort is divided into 3 levels, based on the contractual power, the life-saving electro-medical equipment used and the daily time of use.
Every year on the ARERA website ( LINK ) the values valid for the current year are published.
The bonus amount is not paid in a single solution, but is credited in a deferred manner for 12 months directly on the electricity bill, in the form of a discount on the bill itself.
=> The disbursement of the bonus has an indefinite duration until the use of the electro-medical equipment ceases. It is not necessary to renew the request annually, however in the event of cessation of use of the equipment the customer is required to promptly notify the seller.

Change in conditions necessary to obtain the social bonus

• Switching (change of supplier): in the event of a change of supplier, the continuity of provision of the bonus for physical discomfort by the new supplier is guaranteed.
• Transfer: in the event of transfer of the supply first to the name of the disadvantaged person who holds the physical bonus, the compensation continues continuously.
• Cessation of the use of electromedical equipment: in this case the benefit is interrupted from the first day of the month following the notification to the distributor by the supplier.
• Change in location, type or intensity of use of electro-medical equipment: if these variations could give rise to a different compensation, the distribution company, once the relevant checks have been carried out, applies the component of the bonus for physical discomfort starting from the first day of the second month following the transmission of the new information.