On 1 January this year, over 90,000 pension recipients lost their access to the Pensioner Concession Card (PCC) due to the changes introduced to the pension assets test.
At that time, former recipients were issued with a non-income tested Low Income Health Care Card by the Department of Human Services as a part-replacement for the PCC.
From 9 October, the PCC will be automatically reissued to those former card holders allowing them to regain access to Commonwealth to a range of concessions, including subsidised hearing services and other benefits offered by the states, territories and private enterprise.
The PCC remains exempt from the income and assets tests, however, other eligibility requirements, including residency, must still be met.
Once the new PCC is received, the replacement Low Income Health Care Card will be deactivated. The Commonwealth Seniors Health card remains active so that eligible clients retain access to benefits such as the Energy Supplement.
For more information on this subject feel free to get in touch with us click here.
To read more about our specialised service offers for SMSF, please click here.
Disclaimer and Warning
The information above is of a general nature only. It should not be used as a source to make financial decisions. It’s also important to note that the legislation and figures related to this topic tend to change regularly and therefore the information above may not reflect the current status. We recommend that if you are looking for advice on this matter, you should contact us.