ENERGY BILL RELIEF

Who is eligible:

* Pensioners, veterans, seniors and other concession card holders.

* Recipients of the carer allowance and family tax benefit.

* People in existing state and territory electricity concession schemes.

In NSW:

* More than 1.6 million households and 300,000 businesses will be eligible for energy rebates in the next financial year.

* NSW households will receive $500 and small businesses can get a $650 rebate.

* The price relief rebates will be delivered via energy companies and applied automatically to energy bills.

In VIC:

* More than 1.27 million households and 236,000 small businesses will be eligible for energy price relief from July 1.

* Households will get a $250 annual energy rebate on power bills, in addition to the $250 power saving bonus that will continue.

* Households will continue to access support through year-round electricity concession and the winter gas concession.

* Eligible small businesses will get a $325 rebate, and will receive it automatically if they are a “small customer”.

In QLD:

* More than 1.1 million households and 200,000 small businesses will be eligible for the energy bill relief from July 1.

* Households will receive an annual rebate of $500 and eligible small businesses can access $650.

* The rebates will be applied to household bills by energy companies.

* Small businesses who are classified as a “small customer” will get the relief automatically.

Marion Rae
(Australian Associated Press)