Energy bill relief

For your household to be eligible for the rebate the electricity account holder must, as at 1 July in the relevant year, be a recipient or holder of:

• Pensioner Concession Card (issued by either Services Australia or the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA))
• Health Care Card (including Low Income Health Care Card)
• DVA Gold Card
• Commonwealth Seniors Health Card (issued by either Services Australia or DVA)
• Family Tax Benefit (FTB) A and B
• Carer Allowance
• Immicard (Bridging Visa E).

You must also be able to provide evidence of your address as well as a recent receipt indicating a metered electricity supply at your principal place of residence.

Caravans parked on residential properties are not eligible under this program as they are not individually metered and as a result do not meet the definition of an embedded network.

How to apply for assistance

There are three ways for eligible applicants to access the rebate:

1. apply directly online via SmartyGrants
2. by taking your completed application form (PDF 128.8 KB) along with your relevant documentation for sighting by a Service Tasmania staff member to any Service Tasmania branch around the State; or
3. by sending completed paper applications along with copies of your relevant documentation directly to ReCFIT by mail to: Department of State Growth, Attention: ReCFIT Concessions Team, GPO Box 536, HOBART TAS 7001

If your application is approved, a grant payment of $250 will be made to eligible customers as a one-off payment for each of 2023-24 and 2024-25 financial years. Applications received after 30 June 2024 will only be eligible for one $250 grant payment for 2024-25.

For the second $250 payment in 2024-25, it is intended that eligible applicants that have provided consent for us to confirm their details with Services Australia will not be required to reapply a second time, and that the $250 will automatically be provided in the second year to the nominated bank account, assuming all of the applicant eligibility requirements remain unchanged. Those that have not provided the requested Services Australia consent will have to reapply.

The Energy Bill Relief application form contains further details about the requirements to be met to receive the Energy Bill Relief payment. It will be the responsibility of the applicant to ensure that all requirements outlined in the form are met, and that all parts of the application form are fully completed.

To ensure payment of the grant for both years, applications must be received before 30 June 2024. Applications received after 30 June 2024 will only be eligible for the one grant payment of $250 for 2024-25.

The Energy Saver Loan scheme provides 0% interest loans of up to $10,000 for eligible applicants to invest in energy efficient products to help lower their electricity bills.

Private residential customers, small business customers, community organisations, and landlords of residential rental properties are able to access the Scheme. To date the scheme has received over 3,000 applications and proudly supports local Tasmanian installers.

Further details of the eligibility requirements and the Scheme guidelines can be found on the Energy Saver Loan Scheme page.

You can learn more about how to apply for the Scheme at the Brighte website, or by calling Brighte on 1300 274 448.

• Energy Saver Loan and Subsidy program (NILS)