National Concessions Awareness + Engagement Campaign
A co-designed campaign to highlight government supports available on energy bills.
Why this matters
Ongoing energy concessions can reduce electricity and gas bills. Today, many people are facing increasing energy prices and other cost-of-living pressures; however, around 60% of people who are eligible for ongoing concessions are not taking them up as seen from our June 2023 research, in partnership with independent outcome evaluators at Melbourne University’s Melbourne Institute, as part of Taking the Pulse of the Nation survey.
The primary target for this campaign is people who have a Commonwealth concession card (such as a Centrelink Pensioner Concession Card, a Centrelink HealthCare Card or Veterans’ Affairs Gold Card).
Ongoing energy concessions, and how you access them, vary depending on where you live in Australia. This campaign is about raising awareness in the first instance.
Impact
‘Keep the Money: It’s Yours’ Campaign
This ‘Keep the Money: It’s Yours’ National Concessions Awareness + Engagement Campaign makes it easy to raise awareness about ongoing energy concessions among your customers + communities.
With a range of campaign materials, there’s a variety of simple ways to get involved and help spread the message found in the Promotion Toolkit including campaign assets, talking points/scripts, Indigenous assets, 11 translated assets, Auslan and captioned video as well as more information about the campaign.
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In the context of elevated living costs that may affect concession card holders most severely, the Energy Charter’s efforts to gain insights into the energy-related requirements and behaviours of concession card holders are crucial to enable further work in designing effective interventions and awareness campaigns aimed at mitigating cost pressures among this group.
Dr Ferdi Botha Senior Research Fellow, Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic & Social Research
Collaborators
Community Outcomes Group
- Carers Australia
- Council of the Ageing (COTA)
- Energy Consumers Australia (ECA)
- Federation of Ethnic Communities Council (FECCA)
- Financial Counselling Australia (FCA)
- Justice and Equity Centre
- Mental Health Australia (MHA)
- Northern Territory Council of Social Service (NTCOSS)
- Queensland Council of Social Service (QCOSS)
- South Australia (and Northern Territory) Council of Social Service (SACOSS)
- South Australian Financial Counsellors Association (SAFCA)
- Tasmanian Council of Social Service (TasCOSS)
- Thriving Communities Australia
- Uniting and Victorian Council of Social Services (VCOSS).
Strategic Advisors
- Consumer Policy Research Centre (CPRC Mind the Gap Report)
- Melbourne University – Melbourne Institute
- Ombudsman Network
- Water Services Association Australia (WSAA).
Industry Collaborators
The Energy Charter Signatories:
- Australian Gas Infrastructure Group (AGIG)
- CS Energy
- EnergyAustralia
- Endeavour Energy
- Essential Energy
- Powerlink Queensland
- TasNetworks.
Together with non-Signatories:
- Aurora Energy
- Ausgrid
- Jacana Energy
- Jemena.
Resources + additional information
An independent report has been released by Melbourne University’s Melbourne Institute: Applied Economic & Social Research, found that nearly two-thirds of Australian concession card holders are not aware they may be eligible for energy concessions on bills.
It also found that of Australians experiencing energy hardship, concession holders appear to be the most vulnerable, with nearly 2 in 5 reporting energy hardship compared with just over 1 in 5 percent for non-concession holders.
The report also found that over 4 in 10 of concession card holders have changed their heating and cooling settings to reduce their energy bills.
This report is part of the Energy Charter’s #BetterTogether National Concessions Awareness and Engagement Campaign “Keep the money. It’s yours.” which was aimed at raising awareness amongst concession card holders that they may be eligible for concessions or rebates on their energy bills, as well as understand what they need to do to apply for these.
From our June 2023 research in partnership with independent outcome evaluators at Melbourne University’s Melbourne Institute, as part of Taking the Pulse of the Nation survey, shows a whopping 60 percent of eligible Australians entitled to energy bill concessions are failing to claim them.
In an independent survey of nearly 1,000 Australians found some staggering numbers of Commonwealth Concession Card holders who are missing out on eligible concessions.
Did you know that:
- Over 40% are Health Care Card Holders
- Over 50% are Pension Card Holders
- Women are slightly more likely to be eligible for concessions
- Women are also slightly more likely to be missing out
- Nearly half of those missing out are aged 65+, significantly the largest age group than any other missing out.
It also showed that Victoria has the highest number of customers applying for energy concessions in Australia, whereas New South Wales and Queensland have the highest number of customers missing out on energy concessions in Australia.
This research was recently featured on Channel 7’s Sunrise to Australia wide, reaching millions of people to help raise awareness on those missing out on energy concessions.
In the segment, Kerry, a nurse from VIC discovered she could access energy concessions since she had a Health Care Card.
“Over 3 years, I’ve probably saved roughly $700-750 … When you are saving between your electricity and gas, perhaps that $50 over the quarter, that’s an enormous amount to save that can go to other things.”
The research shows that millions of Australian households are missing out on hundreds of dollars worth of savings because they don’t know they’re eligible for concessions.
This #BetterTogether initiative aligns with:
Principle 5: We will support customers + communities facing vulnerable circumstances.
Learn more
Speak to Bec Jolly, Director, Energy Equity to learn more about the 'Keep the money. It's yours' National Concessions Awareness + Engagement Campaign.