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Starting Monday, September 25, the nationwide repair bonus from the Ministry of Climate Change can be claimed again. The bonus is now resuming after a summer break with tightened security after several fraud cases were exposed in June, in which businesses had faked repairs and pocketed the subsidy. The grant will now be paid directly to customers and will no longer be billed through repair stores.
For this, however, customers have to pre-finance the repair and disclose the account to which the subsidy will be transferred when applying for the bonus. There is also additional work for repair stores; they have to register the repair with the processing center after it has been carried out. The repair voucher remains anonymous, so the partner company cannot access users’ data. Ideally, the money arrives in the account after four to six weeks. Still, it can also take longer, said Eva Rosenberger, responsible for the repair bonus at the Climate Ministry, in the Ö1-Morgenjournal on Wednesday.
Fraud cases
She said the original system was designed to make processing as convenient as possible. “Unfortunately, there are still some fraudulent companies involved,” said the section head for environment and recycling management in the Climate Ministry, Christian Holzer, on the sidelines of a press conference. He expects the system to become more fraud-proof with the adjustments.
Around 130 million euros are available for the repair bonus until 2026, which comes from the EU Reconstruction and Resilience Fund. About 700,000 applications had already been submitted by the summer, and over 70 million euros had been paid out so far.
If the climate ministry has its way, the campaign will continue even after EU funding ends. “We have the clear intention on the part of the Climate Protection Ministry to continue this repair bonus with national funds,” said Holzer. He added that there are currently corresponding negotiations for this, “what the result will be then remains to be seen, but we are very confident.”
New rules
Funding is available to repair household electrical appliances, such as smartphones, washing machines, dishwashers, and coffee machines. The repair is intended to extend the life of the devices, thereby saving resources and avoiding electrical waste. One voucher can be applied per electrical appliance, which can be used for a repair and a cost estimate. Once that voucher is redeemed, a new coupon can be applied to repair another electrical or electronic appliance. Funding is provided for 50 percent of the repair cost, up to a maximum of 200 euros. People with their primary residence in Austria can claim the bonus again from Monday at https://www.reparaturbonus.at/.
- source/picture: reparaturbonus.at
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