TPN letter, is it a scam?

[Mrs Trellis]

A letter with no letterhead arrived from 'Votre Conseiller TPN'). It says he fulfils the conditions to benefit from help with paying our electricity bill, thanks to a special tariff 'produit de premiere necessite' (TPN.

The enclosed form has an edf heading but the return envelope is to Tarifs Sociaux Energies.

The odd thing is, it is not properly addressed - doesn't give the name of the Chemin, and the EDF bills for this house are addressed to me but this letter was to my husband. But the client number is correct.

Is it a scam of some sort? We do not receive any benefits and I don't know why we should get any help with our bills.

[woolybanana]

sounds a scam to me. maybe ask at the mairie

[blondie]

Or email Edf, enclose a scan of the letter and ask them if they know anything about it.

[NormanH]

The scheme is legitimate and for people under a certain income.

I know some people on it.

It is  usually applied automatically

Aucune démarche n'est nécessaire. Le tarif social est attribué

automatiquement dès lors que l'administration fiscale ou les organismes

d'assurance maladie, selon le cas, ont communiqué les coordonnées des

personnes susceptibles d'en bénéficier aux fournisseurs d'électricité.

Les fournisseurs d'électricité adressent ensuite à leurs clients une

attestation les informant qu'ils remplissent les conditions ouvrant

droit au bénéfice du tarif social.

http://vosdroits.service-public.fr/particuliers/F10580.xhtml#N100C6

In fact I think you get  bigger reduction by using someone such as DirectEnergie...

[Quillan]

It is correct just Google "produit de première nécessité tpn". You can also read about it at http://vosdroits.service-public.fr/particuliers/F10580.xhtml

For two people they will give you up to 117 Euros per year for a couple or 94 Eurs for a single person , better than a kick in the crutch. It's a bit like the UK winter fuel allowance yet not quite the same for it is means tested in France and the criteria is as follows

You recieve CMU-C

or

You recieve  l'assurance complémentaire santé (ACS)

or

Your revenu "fiscal de référence" does not exceed 2,175 Euros per part (per person)

I have to say that I initially thought it a scam because there is no official letter head and Mrs 'Q' nearly fell for one of these official looking letters which in reality was a 30 Euro a month insurance policy to protect our washing machine and water heaters from calcium. I visited my mayor who contatced the  NoVERT, as the mayor to check it out and it is correct. I guess not everyone can do this but as he only ahs about 180 people to look after he is not that busy.

[Quillan]

[quote user="NormanH"]
http://vosdroits.service-public.fr/particuliers/F10580.xhtml#N100C6
[/quote]

Strange that Norman, your link and mine are to the same website but diferent page addresses yet both pages look the same. In know the French like lots of copies when you fill in forms but duplicate pages on a government website? Then they wonder why there are so many functionaires in France, probably each page is the responcibility of an individual functionaire. [;-)]

[Mrs Trellis]

Might do. What's the French for scam? There is a number on the letter, but if it's a scam, that won't help.

[idun]

Scam, I would say arnaque or magouille.

ie The film The Sting, was called L'arnaque.

[Quillan]

Anyway I spoke to EDF this morning just to make sure and the letter is genuine even though it does not have their logo on it. Apparently there is a new group of functionaires whose job it is to look at the electricity (and gas) companies, social services and the imports then send letters out to those they think may be eligible. Completing the form does not mean you can have the money it is for checking your details only. The information is then passed on to whoever supplies your electricity (or gas) and they will then give you the reduction automatically.

So fill it in and post it off. I have always maintained that those that do everything correct in France and don't try and cheat the system here can do very nicely and in some cases much better than perhaps if they stayed in the UK. I would go as far as saying by being honest we have been given a lot of money by the generous French system, all little here and a little there, it all adds up.

[kizpip]

We thought 'scam' when our letter arrived about 6 months ago but after a bit of Googling and, as they weren't asking for any private details, we sent off the form. Didn't hear anything for about six weeks then noticed a reduction of 16€25 on the next bill and a similar reduction on subsequent bills. Only applies if your income comes under a certain level but it was offered/given to us automatically, not something we asked for.