One-off payment of up to $75 to be given to around 3.8 million pensioners

19 Jun 2017

Many people in the New England Electorate are amongst 3.8 million people nationally to benefit from a one-off payment of up to $75 to help with energy costs, Deputy Prime Minister and Member for New England, Barnaby Joyce, said today.

 

The Energy Assistance Payment will be provided 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.

  • 33,682 people in the New England Electorate will benefit from this measure including:
  • 21,417 recipients of the Age Pension;
  • 7,418 recipients of the Disability Support Pension;
  • 3,001 recipients of Parenting Payment;
  • 1,846 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.

 

“This one-off payment was part of a sensible and reasonable package to secure significant reform through the Senate to reduce company tax rates to businesses with a turnover of up to $50 million,” Mr Joyce said.

 

“In securing the passage of the company tax cuts, which help more than 3.2 million small and medium sized businesses employing 6.5 million people, invest more, employ extra staff and pay higher wages, the Government also committed to these one-off payments.”

 

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 657 part-pensions in the New England Electorate will have their Pensioner Concession Card reinstated.

 

“Some former part-pensioners were no longer able access some state/territory government, local government and private sector benefits following the discontinuation of their entitlements to a Pensioner Concession Card as part of the sensible reforms to the pension assets test which commenced at the start of this year,” Mr Joyce said.

 

“It’s great to see that these people will have their card reinstated and be able to continue to access the same benefits they previously had through the Pensioner Concession Card.”

 

The Pensioner Concession Card will be automatically provided to eligible former part-pensioners in October.

 

(ENDS)

 

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