Energy rebates guide for residents in TAS
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From young families to retirees, no Tasmanian household is the same. But if there’s one thing some of us might have in common, it’s keeping up with soaring energy bills. And if this is a familiar feeling in your home, it could be worth looking into government energy rebates to help you manage your expenses.
At the moment, there are four electricity rebates available in Tasmania. This guide will walk you through all four rebates, their eligibility criteria and point you in the right direction for submitting your application.
What energy rebates are available in Tasmania?
Keeping up with monthly bills can be challenging, so we’ve jotted down four Tasmanian electricity rebates to help find out which one you might qualify for.
The Annual Electricity Concession
The Annual Electricity Concession is available to low income households and provides a daily discount on your electricity bill. Unlike the same rebate in Victoria, this concession is calculated daily on a cents per day rate. The current concession amount is 140.740 cents per day.
In order to be eligible for the Annual Electricity Concession, you’ll need one of the following cards:
- DHS or DVA Pensioner Concession Card
- DHS Health Care Card
- ImmiCard (Bridging Visa E).
Once you have filled out the Annual Electricity Concession application form, get in touch with your electricity retailer as they are responsible for ensuring the application is submitted.
The Heating Allowance
If you’re an older Aussie looking to reduce your heating bill, you might be eligible for the Heating Allowance. With the Heating Allowance, you could receive $56 a year for your heating costs (payments of $28 are made in May and September).
Keep in mind you will need to own either a DHS or DVA Pensioner Concession Card in order to be eligible. It’s also worth mentioning that a single pensioner must not have more than $1,750 in cash assets and married/de facto pensioners must not have more than $2,570 in cash assets, otherwise your application may be rejected.
The Life Support Concession
Similar to the Life Support Rebate in NSW, the Life Support Concession financially assists households who have a family member using an approved life support machine. Like the Annual Electricity Concession, the amount is calculated on a cents per day rate, plus the amount you will receive also depends on the type of machine being used.
Below are the concession rates for approved machines:
- Oxygen concentrator: 104.314 cents per day
- Peritoneal dialysis machine: 77.395 cents per day
- Haemo-dialysis machine: 77.395 cents per day
- Chronic positive pressure and airways regulator: 37.015 cents per day
- Continuous positive airways pressure machine: 37.015 cents per day
- Respirator (iron lung): 137.964 cents per day
- Combination oxygen concentrator and chronic positive pressure and airways regulator: 141.329 cents per day
- Phototherapy machine: 196.577 cents per day
- Left ventricular assist device: 37.015 cents per day
You can get approved for this rebate by filling out an application form, which will also need to be approved by your medical practitioner before it can be sent to your retailer.
The Medical Cooling or Heating Concession
If you or someone you live with has a medical condition that requires ongoing heating and cooling to prevent their condition from worsening, you could be eligible for the Medical Cooling or Heating Concession. This concession is also calculated on a cents per day rate and provides a discount of 42.155 cents per day.
To get approved for the concession, you must either meet one of the core medical conditions or meet one of the primary qualifying conditions plus one of the secondary qualifying conditions.
Core medical conditions include:
- MultipleSclerosis
- Lymphoedema
- Parkinson’s Disease
- Fibromyalgia
- Motor Neurone Disease
- Post Polio Syndrome/Poliomyelitis
- Scleroderma
- Systemic Lupus Erythematosus
- Complex Regional PainSyndrome
Primary qualifying conditions include:
- Autoimmune system dysfunction (medical conditions in which the autoimmune system has been damaged, such as severe spinal cord injury, stroke, brain injury and neurodegenerative disorders)
- Loss of skin integrity or loss of sweating capacity, such as significant burns greater than 20 per cent, severe inflammatory skin conditions and some rare forms of disordered sweating
- Objective reduction of physiological functioning at extremes of environmental temperatures
- Hypersensitivity to extremes of environment temperatures leading to increased pain or other discomfort or an increased risk of complications, such as advanced peripheral vascular disease
Secondary qualifying conditions include:
- Severe immobility, such as occurs with quadriplegia or high level paraplegia, resulting in problems with self-regulation of body temperature due to loss of sympathetic nervous system control
- Demonstrated significant loss of autonomic regulation of sweating, heart rate or blood pressure due to the effects of extremes of temperature
- Demonstrated loss of physiological function or significant aggravation of clinical condition at extremes of environmental temperature.
A current Pensioner Concession Card (issued by Centrelink or Department of Veterans' Affairs) or a current Health Care Card (issued by Centrelink) is also required.
Patients, or family members applying on a patient's behalf, will need to complete an application form with a medical specialist or general practitioner who can confirm the core medical condition, or at least one primary and secondary qualifying condition.
Not from Tasmania? You can check out our other state rebate guides for:
