Bank’s cheque blunder

Westpac accepts blame for delay in $125 energy rebate

THE State Government’s banking partner Westpac has accepted responsibility for the delay in Tasmanian pensioners receiving their $125 energy supplement.

A Westpac spokesman said due to a distribution error, some of the rebate cheques were not sent on time.

“The error was picked up and all outstanding cheques are in the process of being distributed,” he said.

“Westpac apologises for this delay and we will review our processes to ensure this does not occur again.”

The Mercury received numerous calls from pensioners about the supplement not ar- riving by Christmas. The State Government has suffered some embarrassment after promising 80,000 Pensioner Concession Card and Commonwealth Seniors Health Card holders that they would be “a little better off in time for Christmas thanks to the Hodgman Government’s Special Energy Bonus”.

Pensioners concerned about the late arrival of the Government’s energy sup- plement flooded the Aurora Energy switchboard.

That came after Premier Will Hodgman on Tuesday told people with any problems to contact Aurora.

Yesterday, Aurora had a recorded message: “We are experiencing a high volume of calls in relation to the senior special energy bonus,” it said.

“Please note that Westpac has confirmed that all cheques have been mailed to all eligible Aurora Energy customers that receive a pension.

“We ask for your patience as it may take a few more days for cheques to be delivered to customers’ mailboxes.”

The Government’s banking partner contract with Westpac expires at the end of July.

The $10 million supplement came after Tasmanian energy companies Tas Networks ($94 million) and Aurora Energy ($19 million) made extra- ordinary profits last financial year.

A report in 2016 by the Australian Energy Regulator found that low income Tasmanians paid the highest proportion of their income for electricity of any state.

A low-income family in Tasmania without any concession would pay about $2000 a year, or 8.5 per cent of disposable income, to Aurora Energy for 6500kwh of electricity.