NSW and family tax receivers dont forget to claim the energy rebate

[Mum2SweetCs]

Just a reminder to NSW residents who received fta or ftb during 2011-2012 financial year. You can claim an energy rebate of $75 via Family Energy Rebate | Trade & Investment NSW

Deadline is this friday!

They were fast to respond

[Trillian]

I got mine a few weeks back. it was very low key wasn't it? I think a lot of people will expect to get an automatic payment again like last year and miss the deadline. Considering our heater shat itself months ago and we are using an electric plug in heater, $75 isn't going to go far on this bill

[surprised]

Tax return not done and won't be done by then so I miss out

[Mum2SweetCs]

Yep i didnt know about it till yesterday lol
But i wasnt eligable coz i got the financial year wrong

[CinderToriella]

Tax return not done and won't be done by then so I miss out

I didn't think you had to have tax return done yet ?

[Trillian]

You don't? I just filled in their form and that was it. I did it back in April and it got credited to our power bill last month.

[surprised]

2011-2012 tax return isn't done!

[~clover~]

Oh, so this is something I'm not entitled to in WA? A friend back home asked me if I'd done it & I hadn't heard anything.

Can I ask why its only NSW?

[Trillian]

Because it was a NSW state election promise of Barry O'Farrells, that's why it's not being paid through centerlink, but I was of the understanding that if you received a payment from centerlink anyway (parenting payment etc) then you automatically got an increase in your payments to help address the price rises - but I could be wrong on that. BG should know more about it. And it was only $75 per household anyway, not the per person payment like it was last year.

A REBATE which could help more than half a million struggling NSW families meet rising power bills has been kept quiet by the state government - and now they only have 52 days to claim it.


During the 2011 state election, Premier Barry O'Farrell promised if elected to provide the Family Energy Rebate, starting at $75 in July 2012 and graduating up to $150 in July 2014, for all families with household incomes of $150,000 or less a year.
But of the 540,000 families the Premier said were eligible - those who are on the federal family tax benefit part A and part B - just 664, or 0.13 per cent, had applied as of last month.
And none of them have yet had the benefit paid, a freedom of information application has revealed.
After the FOI was lodged by the Opposition, the government moved to advertise the scheme and set up an online application system and says since then it has had 5500 applications.

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Eligible households which do not apply by the government's deadline of June 14 will miss out on their 2012 rebate. If the current number of applicants remained unchanged, NSW residents would miss out on $40 million worth of rebates.
Energy Minister Chris Hartcher blamed the delay in take-up on problems between his department working with the federal government on determining who was eligible for the rebate.
"Importantly no one will lose out and everyone still has time to apply."
The government pledged to fund the scheme through a merger of the electricity distributors, which Mr Hartcher told The Sunday Telegraph yesterday would reap $2.5 billion for taxpayers.
The government budgeted $13 million for the scheme this financial year, 2012-13, but not one dollar has been spent on paying the rebates.
Mr Hartcher said this was because with the department unable to gain access to family benefit part B tax records from the federal government, it instead expected people to produce 2011-12 tax returns."But a new digital pathway that gives access to federal government systems to confirm eligibility will ensure that applications will now be responded to and processed more quickly," he said.
A spokeswoman for Mr Hartcher said the government could not automatically provide the rebates to punters because: "the rebate is paid to the retailer which then appears as a credit on the customer's bill. As the Department doesn't hold details of customer accounts and their retailers, customers must provide this information to the Department to confirm eligibility and ensure payments are made to the correct retailers".
Opposition Leader John Robertson said there was no doubt thousands of NSW families would miss out on the financial assistance.
NSW Council of Social Service director, Alison Peters, said the rebates were critical in an environment where families were struggling with bills.
A recent report produced by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre found that 23,207 households were disconnected for not paying their electricity bills in 2011-12 - up 25 per cent on the previous year.
Families who wish to apply for the rebate should log on to trade.nsw.gov.au/energy and select the "Family Energy Rebate" link or call the government's "energy information line" on 1300 136 888.

[~clover~]

Yeah, I get the 'clean energy' payment. Was just wondering how this one worked. Cheers

[CinderToriella]

Just claimed mine ... It says it could take about a month to process .. Out electric bills are huge , so I will take anything to help us out ATM ... Thanks so much for reminding us all