A reader, a resident of Warta Bolesławiecka municipality, informed us about the case. He appealed against the decision by GOPS in Warta refusing to grant him the coal allowance and won the case. Although he won the case in January and is entitled to the coal allowance, he had still not received it by 24 February 2023.
– Receiving the coal allowance depended, among other things, on when one entered their building in the Central Register of Emissions of Buildings (CEEB), the man explained. – The deadline for reporting was 11 August 2022. GOPS in Warta refused to grant the coal allowance to everyone who entered their building in the CEEB later, the municipality resident said.
The man entered the heat source in his building into the CEEB on 23 August 2022.
– Across Poland, very few people entered their buildings into the CEEB by 11 August, the man continued. – In Lower Silesian Voivodeship, it was around 40% of entries. The remaining people would have been deprived of the coal allowance for this reason. Therefore, our Sejm changed this deadline by statute. It simply abolished it. That happened at the beginning of November 2022. The municipality should have notified people then—all those who had submitted applications for the coal subsidy but whose applications had been rejected. They should have informed them that they were entitled to the coal allowance, the man said.
Neither the municipality nor GOPS in Warta sent such information to people, however. The reader submitted the application again. He was certain that after the change in the law, the officials would grant him the coal allowance.
– And they refused me again, the man explained. – Still referring to the date of 11 August 2022. I went to them and showed them the Journal of Laws and legal interpretations. And they still refused me. That is why I appealed against their decision by writing to the Local Government Appeals Board (SKO) in Jelenia Góra. SKO annulled the municipality’s decision and ordered it to reconsider the case, this time positively and in accordance with guidelines explaining why I was entitled to the coal allowance. They wrote that the municipal officials were mistaken. And despite this, the coal allowance money still has not reached my account. They are making fools of people. They do not observe official deadlines or anything else. They simply do things their own way. And I know there are many people like me. I do not know, maybe one hundred or two hundred, because not everyone follows the regulations. To this day, people are unaware that they have the right to receive the coal allowance. GOPS itself should be informing people and acting for the benefit of society, not against it, added the resident of Warta Bolesławiecka municipality.
An amendment by the Sejm of the Republic of Poland, in Article 26(15g) of the Act, abolished the deadline for reporting a building’s emissions to the Central Register of Emissions of Buildings (CEEB). A person in a household is entitled to the coal allowance even when the main heating source specified by the Act was not reported or entered into the CEEB by 11 August 2022.
On 24 February, after office hours, we sent an inquiry to GOPS in Warta Bolesławiecka asking how many people in the municipality had been denied the coal allowance solely because they had not entered the building’s main heating source into the CEEB by 11 August 2022. We also asked whether these people would be informed that they could submit an application again and that they were entitled to the coal allowance.
We are awaiting a response and will publish it as soon as we receive it.