Nearly 500,000 Australians will probably be eligible for a rebate price lots of of {dollars} in a bid to offset a significant worth hike anticipated on July 1.
All Commonwealth Seniors Health Card holders will obtain as much as $500 per family in power invoice reduction from the federal authorities.
From July 1, electrical energy costs will enhance between 20 and 25 per cent for these in NSW, southeast Queensland and South Australia.
The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) launched its closing willpower on Thursday, with the revised hike larger than the March draft of 20 to 22 per cent rise.
AER chair Clare Savage stated it had been a “difficult decision” however excessive wholesale power prices continued to drive up retail costs.
“No one wants to see rising prices, and we recognise this is a difficult time, that’s why it’s important for consumers to shop around for a better deal,” she stated.
Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth stated the scheme would “help older Australians keep more money in their pockets”.
Following the AER’s announcement on Thursday, Opposition Leader Peter Dutton stated Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had “lied” to Australians about power costs.
“Let’s be very clear about it, he promised on 97 occasions your bill would go down by $275,” he advised Today present host Karl Stefanovic.
“I think the government’s completely underestimating how much families and small businesses are hurting at the moment.”
Mr Dutton additionally referred to solutions that rising power costs had been precipitated partly by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a “nonsense argument”.
Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles pushed again on the opposition’s feedback, accusing Mr Dutton of “making stuff up” and saying the Liberal Party had voted towards the $500 reduction plan.
“When that war started, no one was imagining that it would still be going today in the way that it is,” Mr Marles stated.
“That has disrupted energy prices and that’s what we’ve had to deal with.”
Income limits for the Seniors Health Card had been elevated to $90,000 for singles and $144,000 for {couples} on November 4, 2022 – the largest enhance in additional than 20 years.
“It’s great that in six months of the new income threshold limits being in place so many older Australians have received access to the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card,” Ms Rishworth stated.
“Our hope is this take-up trajectory continues and more older Australians continue to take advantage of these increased income limits in the years to come.”
Initial projections of elevated earnings limits projected a further 52,000 Australians would profit from the scheme by 2026-27.
Since November a further 16,230 Australians who weren’t beforehand eligible have been granted entry to the cardboard.
The AER stated that had the federal government not intervened within the power market, power costs would have climbed 35 to 50 per cent.
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
