Coronavirus stimulus: $750 payments to pensioners due from 31 March 2020
Aged pensioners will get a one-off $750 payment as part of the Federal Government’s stimulus package announced last week.
6.5 million people are expected to receive the payment, including 2.4 million pensioners.
This includes people on the Age Pension, Newstart, the Disability Support Pension, Carers’ Allowance, Youth Allowance, Veterans’ Affairs payments, Family Tax Benefit and those holding a Pensioner Concession Card or Commonwealth Senior Health Card.
The Federal Government has also reduced deeming rates by a further 0.25 per cent. (Learn more on deeming rates here).
Time frame when payments will be transferred to your account
The payment will start to flow into bank accounts from March 31, with over 90 per cent of payments expected to be made by mid-April.
The payment will be tax free and will not count as income for Social Security, Farm Household Allowance and Veteran payments. There will be only one payment per eligible recipient.
People who already receive these payments or hold these cards will get the cash automatically.
You don’t need to do anything.
Eligible payments include:
You’ll also get the payment if you have 1 of the following concession cards:
You’ll also get the payment if you get 1 of the following Department of Veterans’ Affairs payments:
- Veteran Service Pension
- Veteran Income Support Supplement
- Veteran Compensation payments, including lump sum payments
- War Widow(er) Pension
You’ll only get 1 payment, even if you get more than 1 qualifying payment or card.
Important note: Make sure we have your right details so the Government can pay you. The easiest way to do this is by using either:
- your Centrelink online account through myGov
- the Express Plus Centrelink app
If you don’t have an online account, you can phone us on your regular payment line.
The payments will cost a total of $4.8 billion and were part of the Government’s first stage of the now second-stage $66 billion economic stimulus package – to shore up the Australian economy as the world deals with the significant challenges posed by the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19).
The total economic assistance package is worth $189 billion, according to the Government, equivalent to 9.7 per cent of Australia’s gross domestic product.
“We cannot prevent all the many hardships, many sacrifices that we will face in the months ahead,” Mr Morrison said.
“And while these hardships and sacrifices may break our hearts on occasion, we must not let them break our spirit and we must not let them break our resolves as Australians.”
For more information, visit the Government website here
Source:
– Australian Government website, A $750 one off Economic Support Payment. 12 March 2020 Read more
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