Can I have discount cards without the age pension?
We’re often asked about pensioner concession card eligibility and whether they’re available to people who don’t yet qualify for the age pension concession card. Here’s the good news: most retired people are eligible for the pensioner concession card.
We offer a range of solutions and retirement advice.
How to Get a Pensioner Concession Card
If you qualify for any of the following payments, you’re eligible for a pensioner concession card:
- Carer Payment
- JobSeeker Payment or Youth Allowance (if you’re single and caring for a dependent child who is looking for work)
- Age Pension
- Parenting Payment
For those who are aged 60 and over, you’re eligible for a pension concessioner card if you’ve been receiving at least one of the following payments for more than 9 months:
- Parenting Payment
- JobSeeker Payment
- Special Benefit
Eligibility for a concession card
Many people want the age pension so they can get a concession card and its discounts on rates, car rego, medications, and bills such as electricity and gas etc. What you may not realise is that you don’t need to get an age pension to get a concession card (as there are a number of different concession cards available). For example, once you’re retired, it’s likely you would be considered as having a ‘low income’ and may qualify for a low income health care card which offers many of the same discounts as the pensioner concession card. Also, due to the way your income is assessed in retirement, your income usually isn’t based on how much income you draw from your superannuation, but is based on the balance of bank accounts, superannuation and pension accounts and what Centrelink calls your “deemed” income. This is often much less than the income you are living off in retirement.
Once your income is considered ‘low’, you are eligible for the low-income concession card. Some of our clients have $1.5M+ but they are still eligible for the low-income card. These clients can access all discounts except for council rates.
Read more about the pension concession card at Services Australia.
Use the Services Vic eligibility calculator to find out which payments you are eligible to claim.
If you’re considering retiring and would like to discuss your options, call us to discuss your situation and we’ll see how we can help!
