Eligibility for Energy Supplement

Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible for the energy supplement (ES) a person must be:

• a recipient of an underlying payment or benefit (UP);
• receiving a rate of payment greater than nil;
• an Australian resident; and
• in Australia or temporarily absent for no more than six weeks.

Special rules apply for some UPs.    

Underlying payments and benefits

The underlying payments and benefits (UPs) for DVA clients are:

• VEA Service Pension,
• SSA Age Pension paid by DVA,
• VEA War Widow/er's Pension,
• VEA Disability Compensation Payment,
• Commonwealth Seniors Health Card (CSHC) grandfathered,
• VEA or MRCA Gold Card (only holders over qualifying age and not receiving income support),
• MRCA Wholly Dependent Partner payment,
• MRCA Special Rate Disability Pension,
• MRCA Permanent Impairment payment,
• VCES fortnightly education allowance, and
• MRCAETS fortnightly education allowance.

Receiving more than one ES

A person can be eligible for multiple ES payments. The following table demonstrates how people may receive more than one ES.

Multiple entitlement exclusion rules prevent a person receiving more than one ES from within the same group.     

Where a person has eligibility for the general rate of Disability Compensation Payment ES and MRCA permanent impairment ES, MRCA permanent impairment ES is paid.

In all other cases, if a person is eligible for more than one ES from within the same group, the highest ES out of those they are eligible for is paid.