1. The €100: who, how much, when, how
When it was announced on 22 September the aid covered October and November; the tax administration's official page now gives the period as 1 October to 31 December 2026 and sets the limit at a 2024 reference tax income of €22,770 per tax share (impots.gouv.fr, updated 15 October). The payment is €100, which the administration puts at the equivalent of 40 cents a litre over three months, and it can be granted only once per vehicle. It is meant for “grands rouleurs”: people who use their vehicle for work and drive at least 15 km to work each day, 30 km there and back, or at least 8,000 km a year as part of their job. Their 2024 income must come from wages (excluding unemployment benefit and early retirement) or from self-employment, they must not have owed the IFI property wealth tax, and the vehicle must have a combustion engine or a non-plug-in hybrid drive and be insured; company and service cars, heavy goods vehicles, farm vehicles and heavy quadricycles are excluded, and the tax office's simulator checks individual cases. Applicants must have been at least 16 on 31 December 2024 and be tax resident in France.
Two cases. If you were paid for April to September, you need do nothing: the €100 arrives automatically from 16 October, and the administration counts about 1.6 million people in this group. If you were not, the higher limit may now make you eligible: check the tax office's eligibility simulator, then apply from 27 October 2026; payment follows within ten days. The pool of potential recipients rises to 5.5 million people, from 3 million (impots.gouv.fr). At the launch on 22 September, Hérault Tribune reported monthly limits of €2,035 for a single person; the official page uses reference tax income per share. Because the aid requires French tax residence, cross-border commuters who live in another country do not qualify.
2. Diesel and heating oil: what is planned for November
For diesel, the government set out on 7 October a price cut funded from strategic stocks: 10 million barrels of gazole are to be made available at cost, about €0.28 a litre against roughly €1.10 on the market, both before distribution, excise and VAT, which it expects to lower the price by 12 to 18 cents a litre on average for three months, November to January (info.gouv.fr, 7 and 9 October). The prime minister said he would sign the decree shortly; legal and operational arrangements have to be in place first. The consumer and competition authority DGCCRF is tracking purchase prices and margins and is due to publish the results every week; if the cut is not passed on, the government says it could allocate the stocks by market share or cap margins by decree. The government page covers diesel and does not mention heating oil.
For heating oil, the only figure so far comes from a supplier. TotalEnergies is giving customers who heat with oil a discount of €200 per cubic metre, or €0.20 a litre, from 1 November 2026 to 31 January 2027 (press release of 12 October, quoted by Selectra on 14 October). Selectra lists what is still unclear: whether an order placed before 1 November and delivered later qualifies, whether the discount applies before or after tax, whether there is a minimum volume and whether dealers trading under the brand take part. It is worth asking the supplier before ordering, bearing in mind that the market price can move by more than the €0.20 a litre discount before delivery. Standard heating oil averaged €1,859 per 1,000 litres in France on 20 October at 11:35 (prixfioul.fr).
At the pumps the strain shows: on the evening of Sunday 18 October, 16.2 per cent of active French filling stations were out of diesel or E10, and 14.4 per cent were still short at 10:00 on Monday, according to Selectra's analysis of the economy ministry's official price feed; Selectra counts a station as active if it reported a price or a shortage in the previous seven days. For at least one fuel, including SP95, LPG and E85, the worst-hit départements on Monday morning were Hauts-de-Seine, Bas-Rhin and Paris (Selectra, 20 October). The winter outlook for diesel is on Diesel shortage winter 2026-27.
3. Energy cheque 2027: more households, paid earlier, valid for heating oil
The 2027 energy cheque will be sent in January 2027 instead of April to 4.5 million households, 700,000 more, worth €48 to €277 depending on income (Hérault Tribune). This is the part of the package that touches oil-heated homes: the cheque can be spent directly with a heating oil supplier, as with a gas or electricity supplier. The current campaign's amounts and conditions are on our French page Chèque énergie 2026.
The 22 September package did not cut the TICPE fuel tax; a diesel price cut from strategic stocks for November to January has been announced since (see above), and the government presents it as a diesel measure. Heating oil stays at market price, €1,859 per 1,000 litres on 20 October (prixfioul.fr). For a household ordering 2,000 litres, the maximum cheque of €277 covers about 7 per cent of the bill. France's daily heating oil price is on Prix du fioul aujourd'hui.
4. Employees, builders, farmers, fishers, nurses: the business side
| Measure | Amount | Duration | Beneficiaries |
|---|---|---|---|
| Employer fuel bonus | ceiling €600 → €1,000, free of tax and social charges | not stated | employees whose employer pays it |
| Off-road diesel, construction | €0.20 a litre | until 31 December 2026 | construction firms |
| Off-road diesel, agriculture | €0.15 a litre | until 31 December 2026 | farmers |
| Fishing | 70 % of extra costs versus pre-crisis; zero-interest loans up to €50,000 | until December 2026; loans from 1 October 2026 | fishing businesses |
| Self-employed nurses | €80 a month, deferral of URSSAF contributions possible | two months | 25,000 nurses |
All figures come from the presentation of 22 September 2026 as reported by Hérault Tribune. The employer bonus is an option, not an obligation. The government frames the measures within a long-term electrification strategy to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. Our glossary explains the equivalent off-road diesel rebate schemes.
5. Three countries, three answers: Paris, Berlin, Madrid
France helps selectively; Germany cuts at the pump: from 1 October German energy tax on petrol and diesel falls by 14 cents a litre, about 17 cents gross, for everyone, for three months, at a cost of €2.5 billion (ZDFheute, 19 September; see Germany's fuel tax cut). Spain has extended its 20-cent diesel relief and widened it to petrol as a cut in hydrocarbon tax: 20 cents in October, 13 in November and 6 in December, the last two steps depending on how prices move (Royal Decree-Law 25/2026, BOE of 30 September; see Spain extends its 20-cent fuel discount). Three countries, three roads, with diesel between €1.83 and €2.47 a litre.
The French choice has a logic: a tax cut helps those who drive most, and German economists call it poorly targeted (ZDFheute); the means-tested €100 goes to households that have no alternative to the car. Its weakness is size: €100 for three months, which the administration equates to 40 cents a litre, is about one tank at the price of €2.41 a litre on 20 September, while a German driver saves about 17 cents on every litre for three months. Why diesel is so expensive everywhere is on Why is diesel more expensive than petrol; what winter holds, on Diesel shortage winter 2026/27.
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