COVID-19: $750 Stimulus Payments - Are you eligible?

On 12 March 2020 the Australian Government announced an economic stimulus package in response to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. On 22 March 2020, the Australian Government announced a second package of measures.

Details

The following details the two $750 lump sum payments for recipients of certain social security and veterans’ payments and certain concession card holders announced in the first and second packages:

one payment to be paid from 31 March 2020 and
one payment to be paid from 13 July 2020.

The second $750 payment will exclude some recipients of the first payment. This excluded group will instead receive a payment known as the Coronavirus Supplement or COVID-19 Supplement.

The legislation providing for the social security measures is the Coronavirus Economic Response Package Omnibus Bill 2020. The Bill was introduced and passed by the Parliament on 23 March 2020.

The First $750 Payment

The first $750 payment was announced on 12 March 2020 as part of an economic stimulus package in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Payments are to be made from 31 March 2020 to those who were in receipt of an eligible payment or who held an eligible concession card in the period 12 March 2020 to 13 April 2020.

Only one payment of $750 can be made to each eligible individual, regardless of how many eligible payments they receive or concession cards held. A person can be eligible for the $750 regardless of the rate of the eligible payment they receive. The individual must be residing in Australia to be eligible for the payment.

Eligibility

The list below details the payments and concession cards eligible for the one-off payment

Category: Social security income support payments

Payments / Cards: Age Pension, Disability Support Pension, Carer Payment, Parenting Payment, Wife Pension, Widow B Pension, Austudy, Bereavement Allowance, Newstart Allowance, JobSeeker Payment*, Youth Allowance, Partner Allowance, Sickness Allowance, Special Benefit and Widow Allowance

Category: Family Assistance Payments

Payments / Cards: Family Tax Benefit A & B, including Double Orphan Pension

Category: Veterans’ Payments

Payments / Cards: Veteran Service Pension; Veteran Income Support Supplement; Veteran Compensation payments, including lump sum payments; War Widow(er) Pension; and Veteran Payment

Category: Concession and Health Cards

Payments / Cards: Pensioner Concession Card, Commonwealth Seniors Health Card holders and Veteran Gold Card holders

Category: Other

Payments / Cards: ABSTUDY (Living Allowance) and Farm Household Allowance

* JobSeeker Payment is replacing Newstart Allowance, Sickness Allowance, Bereavement Allowance and a number of other payments closed to new recipients from 20 March 2020.

Source: Australian Government, Stimulus payments to households to support growth, fact sheet, Treasury, March 2020.

The payment will be made automatically from 31 March 2020 onwards to eligible recipients—they will not need to apply for the payment.

Those who make a claim for one of the eligible payments during the period 12 March 2020 to 13 April 2020, and who are later found to be eligible for the payment, will also receive the first $750 payment.

The Second $750 Payment

The second $750 payment will be made available to the same recipients as the first payment that are eligible for a qualifying payment or card on 10 July 2020, with the exception those who are receiving the Coronovirus Supplement on 10 July 2020. This will exclude the following payment recipients:

JobSeeker Payment (and the payments transitioning into JobSeeker Payment including Sickness Allowance, Wife Pension and Bereavement Allowance)
Youth Allowance for jobseekers, students and apprentices
Parenting Payment (Partnered and Single)
Austudy
ABSTUDY Living Allowance
Farm Household Allowance and
Special Benefit.

The Coronavirus Supplement is a payment of $550 per fortnight to be paid for a period of at least six months. Initially, student payment recipients were ineligible for the Coronavirus Supplement and would have been eligible for the second lump sum payment.

However, following amendments to the Coronavirus Economic Response Package Omnibus Bill 2020 in the Senate, the Government indicated that it would move to provide recipients of Youth Allowance (Student and Apprentice), ABSTUDY Living Allowance and Austudy with access to the supplement.

The second payment will be made automatically from 13 July 2020 onwards to eligible recipients—they will not need to apply for the payment.

Number of People who will benefit

The treasury fact sheet for the lump sum payments states:

around 6.6 million individuals will receive the first $750 payment and
around 5 million individuals will receive the second $750 payment.

The number of recipients of the second payment will be lower than this estimate following the exclusion of student payment recipients who are in receipt of the Coronavirus Supplement.

Information first published by www.aph.gov.au on 23 March 2020 and has been updated on 24 March 2020 to reflect Government amendments to the Coronavirus Economic Response Package Omnibus Bill 2020.