Missing out on power savings

AUSSIES fed up with the increasing cost of living could be missing out on cheaper power bills, purely because they don’t know they’re eligible for concessions.

The Consumer Policy Research Centre this week released a study which estimated how many people across the country – with the exceptions of Western Australia and the Northern Territory – were actually seeking the benefits of concession or rebate schemes on their power bills.

The study found around 41 per cent of eligible residents in the ACT were receiving the concessions to which they were entitled. That ratio works out to be two in five people.

In the ACT, a utility subsidy for concession card holders is worth $750 a year.

Queenslanders are missing out, with 29 per cent of those able to get rebates missing out on $453 for gas and electricity – $372 for electricity and $80 for gas a year.

The negative trend continued in South Australia, where 38 per cent of those eligible people simply weren’t receiving rebates.

SA rebates up to $242 a year are available.

More than a third of eligible residents in NSW were also missing out on rebates, with 35 per cent of residents going without the discounts.

Eligible households can receive the rebate as a credit on quarterly energy bills, worth up to $285 a year.

In Tasmania, 19 per cent of residents eligible for a one-off winter assistance package missed out.

But in Victoria, 93 per cent are estimated to have claimed concession on electricity bills, and 88 per cent claimed gas bill concessions with another 78 per cent on water.

The Consumer Police Research Centre said the figure was likely an underestimation.