Commonwealth Seniors Health Card update

As we know from the popularity of the National Seniors Concession Calculator, seniors strongly value the concessions offered to them via state, territory, local and federal governments.

One of the main concession cards in Australia is the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card (CSHC). This card is available to low-income self-funded retirees who meet income test eligibility rules.

During the recent election, the Coalition and Labor promised to increase the income test thresholds so that Commonwealth Seniors Health Card holders could access health care and other concessions.

Key points

• The Coalition and Labor promised to change the income thresholds for eligibility for the Commonwealth Seniors Health card at the last election.

• Forty-four thousand retirees would benefit from this change in the first year. An additional 52,000 retirees would get access to the card by 2026-27.

• Moves to attach unrelated amendments to the legislation by the Coalition and crossbench have delayed the change until the next sitting of parliament.