One-off $75 energy rebate for 37,947 Wide Bay pensioners

21/06/2017

One-off $75 energy rebate for 37,947 Wide Bay pensioners

Almost 38,000 people in Wide Bay are amongst 3.8 million people nationally to benefit from a one-off payment of up to $75 to help with energy costs.

The Energy Assistance Payment will be provided in the next two weeks to people on the Age Pension, Disability Support Pension and Parenting Payment Single as well as Veterans and their partners who receive the Service Pension, Income Support Supplement and relevant compensation payments.

37,947 people in Wide Bay will benefit from this measure including:

• 24,001 recipients of the Age Pension
• 8,986 recipients of the Disability Support Pension and
• 2,221 recipients of Parenting Payment Single. 
• 2,739 recipients of veteran’s payments.

 The one-off payment is $75 for singles and $62.50 for each pensioner in a couple. It will be automatically paid to eligible recipients over the next two weeks.

“The one-off energy cost rebate was part of a sensible package to secure significant reform through the Senate to reduce company tax rates to businesses with a turnover of up to $50 million,” Member for Wide Bay Llew O’Brien said.

“These company tax cuts will help the Wide Bay’s 17,574 small businesses hire extra staff, pay higher wages and invest more.”

The payment will not be taxed, will not be treated as income for tax purposes and does not count as income for social security purposes.

Further information is available at:  www.humanservices.gov.au/energyassist
 
In addition, about 828 part-pensions in Wide Bay will have their Pensioner Concession Card reinstated.
 
Some former part-pensioners lost access to some state/territory government, local government and private sector benefits as a consequence of losing their Pensioner Concession Card, as a result of reasonable reforms to the pension assets test at the start of this year.
 
“Many people have contacted my office asking for the card to be reinstated, I’m pleased the Coalition Government has listened and acted to enable them to continue to access the same benefits they previously had through the Pensioner Concession Card,” Mr O’Brien said.
 
The Pensioner Concession Card will be automatically provided to eligible former part-pensioners in October.