As many as 86,000 socially deprived families will receive cold-month allowances during November 2021 –March 2022. The Government on December 3 approved a relevant draft decision with the aim of increasing the social protection of families following the rise in the prices of electricity, gas, wood and coal, IPN reports.

So far, cold-month allowances were provided to families with incomes lower than 2,631 lei. Now the upper limit is 3,109 lei. The multiplier used to determine the cold-month allowance was raised from 2.2 to 2.6.

The criteria for deciding those who are eligible to cold-month allowances include the number of family members, the number of grownups and children. The disability degree of one of the members of the family will also be taken into account.

The applications for social assistance submitted after November 1, 2021 will be reviewed automatically as the changes will be applied for November too.

Over 300 million lei was earmarked in the state budget for paying cold-month allowances. In November 2020 – March 2021, the average number of disadvantaged families that received such allowances was 212,000.

The cold-month allowance for November 2021 –March 2022 is 700 lei a month.