Concession cards and information 101-06000000

Concession cards and services delivered by Services Australia can help customer's access cheaper health care services and medicines.

Concession cards assist people receiving income support, low income earners and their dependants to access concessional rate pharmaceuticals and other medical services funded by the Australian Government. Some concessions may also be available from private businesses, but these are offered at the discretion of the provider organisation. These cards may also give customers access to other concessions provided and funded by State and Local Governments. Select links below for extra information about initial and ongoing eligibility criteria for concession cards when cards are issued and circumstances where access to concessional entitlement are limited or cease.

For a table containing additional information about the eligibility of cardholders, partners, dependents and the issue and reissue cycle, see the Resources page.

A HCC can be used to obtain concessional medicines through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). It also provides access to a limited range of State and Local Government health, household, educational, recreational and transport concessions.

HCCs are automatically issued to customers:

• receiving an eligible income support payment
• receiving Carer Allowance (child). Note: this HCC is in the child's name only
• receiving Mobility Allowance (MOB). Note: customers whose Mobility Allowance is cancelled due to the customer becoming a funded participant of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) retain entitlement to their Mobility Allowance HCC
• receiving the maximum rate of Family Tax Benefit (FTB) Part A as fortnightly instalments (or who would except for the Maintenance Income Test)
• who would receive maximum FTB Part A except that they only have care of a Regular Care Child
• who receive FTB for a foster child. Note: this HCC is in the foster child's name only
• receiving Carer Payment (CP) for short-term or episodic conditions
• who were in receipt of certain income support payments for 52 weeks and payments have been cancelled due to income will also qualify for an automatically issued HCC for up to 26 weeks. See Extended Entitlement to Concession Cards
• who are single principal carers on JobSeeker Payment or Youth Allowance (job seeker) whose payment ceases because of a return to work will retain their Pensioner Concession Card (PCC) for 26 weeks

A Carer Allowance (CA) child may also qualify for a HCC if the carer does not qualify for a Carer Allowance payment. The carer must complete a Claim for Carer Payment and/or Carer Allowance - Caring for a child - under 16 years (SA337) and have the treating doctor complete a Treating Doctor's Report (SA333tdr). For further information, see Coding a claim for Carer Allowance (CA) where the care receiver is under 16.

When a CA child turns 16, they automatically lose qualification for a HCC. They may be eligible to claim an Ex-CA (child) Health Care Card (EHC).

EHC can be used to obtain concessional medicines through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). It also provides access to a limited range of State and Local Government health, household, educational, recreational and transport concessions. Customers will need to follow up what concessions are available with the concession provider.

A LIC is a HCC for which a claim is required.

This card can be claimed by:

• customers:
• who are low income earners
• who receive less than the maximum Family Tax Benefit (FTB) Part A
• who are not claiming FTB by instalments
• who are not an FTB child aged over 16 years
• young dependent people who are not entitled to payments as their parental means test is too high
• children who do not meet the definition of an FTB child and are not considered to be a dependent of an adult. The child may be in formal or informal foster care, a ward of the state, in the care of State/Territory government care or an Approved Care Organisation

Service Officers may backdate a LIC start date to a date of medical service or treatment rendered to the customer or an eligible participant up to 40 weeks before the claims was lodged provided the customer was qualified for the entire period. See Low Income Health Care Card (LIC) for more information.

LIC can be used to obtain concessional medicines through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). It also provides access to a limited range of State and Local Government health, household, educational, recreational and transport concessions. Customers will need to follow up what concessions are available with the concession provider.

Foster carers can claim a Foster Child Health Care Card.

Customers do not need to be formal foster carers (for example caring for ward of the state). They can be any person caring for a child who is not their natural or adopted child, such as a grandparent. FST is issued to the foster carer but only the foster child is named and covered by the card.

FST can be used to obtain concessional medicines through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). It also provides access to a limited range of State and Local Government health, household, educational, recreational and transport concessions. Customers will need to follow up what concessions are available with the concession provider.

A PCC is automatically issued upon qualification, then every 2 years to:

• customers who receive a social security pension
• from 1 January 2008, Parenting Payment Partnered (PPP) customers, who were granted on or after 1 July 2006 and who have a partial capacity to work as assessed by an Employment Services Assessment (ESAt)
• Jobseeker Payment (JSP) customers who have a partial capacity to work as assess by an ESAt
• a single JSP or Youth Allowance (job seeker) customer who is the principal carer of a dependent child
• customers aged over 55 who are receiving PPP, JSP or Special Benefit (SpB), and the person has been receiving one or more of these payments for a continuous period of not less than 39 weeks ending immediately before the qualification day

Note: customers aged over 55, who have been in continuous receipt of one of these payments or a social security pension for at least 39 weeks immediately before a benefit transfer to another of these payments, will retain their entitlement to the PCC. They must also meet the residency requirements for a PCC.

Customers who qualify for a PCC are entitled to additional concessions from Federal, State and Local Government authorities and some private organisations. As some of these concessions are provided and funded by State and Local Governments they can vary from state to state. For more information, see Extra concession information.

Customers need to make a claim to receive a CSHC.

They need to have reached Age Pension age to qualify.

A CSHC can be used to obtain concessional medicines through the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS). For example, some people can get help with their hearing aids.

This card may entitle cardholders to State or Local Government concessions, but these may vary from State to State and cardholders need to check with the relevant State or Local government authority. See Extra concession information.

There may be situations where the person named on the card is unable to sign it. For example, the customer may be unable to sign because of a disability, or they may be a child who has not yet developed a signature, etc.

Social Security law does not require that a concession card be signed. A signature is only one method of determining that the person using a concession card is the person entitled to use it. This can be established by identification methods other than a signature.

A person is not required to have any particular mental capacity to sign a concession card. The appropriate person to sign may vary depending on the circumstances:

• if a child is old enough to write their name on the card and is able to identically reproduce this signature upon request, then it may be appropriate for the child to sign the card
• if a person is not able to sign the card, then any person with legal guardianship is able to sign the card on the child's behalf. This includes nominees. The guardian/nominee should indicate in the signature block that they are signing on another person's behalf
• many adults are unable to read or write and it is a long established principle that an 'X' placed on a document by such a person constitutes their signature for legal purposes

It should be noted that the agency only provides the concession cards through Centrelink, not the concessions. It is ultimately the concession provider who determines whether to accept a concession card which has not been signed by the person named on it.

Income support customers

Concession entitlement for the customer ceases on the day before date of death, as the day the customer passes away is considered part of the bereavement period.

Executors/family members who contact Services Australia regarding organisations (that is hospitals or pharmacies) charging full price for services received on the date of death, should be advised that they will need to discuss this with the service concerned.

Concession card only customers

Customers issued with the following concession cards from Services Australia, will also have their concession entitlement cease on the day before date of death:

• Commonwealth Seniors Health Card (CSHC)
• Low Income Health Care Card (LIC)
• Foster Child Health Care Card (FST)
• Ex-Carer Allowance (child) Health Care Card (EHC)

When a CSHC customer advises of the death of their partner, a review should be initiated to ensure the customer is still qualified for CSHC or if the customer may have entitlement to an income support payment. There is no system produced review for this and Service Officers need to manually follow up the details with the customer either by phone or via mail. Customers should be given 21 days to respond.

Care receiver

When a Carer Payment care receiver dies and the carer is entitled to continuation of Carer Payment (CP) during the bereavement period, entitlement to PCC also continues.

If a customer was receiving CP to care for a child with a short-term or episodic condition and the child dies, the customer retains entitlement to their HCC and CP during the bereavement period, regardless of the medical report end date.

Customers lose their entitlement to their concession card following incarceration. These customers are not able to claim another card while in prison.

A new concession card is automatically issued to customers when:

• a change of name or address has been recorded
• a new person qualifies as a dependant of the cardholder
• there has been a change of concession type (that is HCC to PCC)
• the customer has applied for a new concession type by lodging a claim

Note: if the card applied for is lower in the card hierarchy than any existing concession card, the new card will not be issued automatically by the system.

A new concession card will not be issued when a person ceases to be an eligible dependant of the card holder. If requested by the cardholder, a replacement card without the dependant listed may be issued manually.

See How to reissue concession cards for further information.

Customers are not automatically issued a new concession card when transferring from one payment to another and retain entitlement to the same type of concession card. For example, when a customer transfers from Disability Support Pension (DSP) to Age Pension. As the customer was entitled to a Pensioner Concession Card (PCC) whilst on DSP, a new PCC will not be issued to the customer unless the customer requests a new card.

Any new card issued after the transfer activity is processed will display an abbreviated code to reflect the primary payment current at the time of issue. This includes the reissued card which is sent one month before the expiry date of the current card.

An exception to this is if a customer is transferring from the standard pension to Blind Pension. A new card will be issued due to the physical appearance of the card being slightly different.

Customers can access their digital wallet on the Express Centrelink app or the myGov app wallet.

It allows customers to present their concession card using their smart device. It is at the discretion of the concession provider whether they accept the digital card, so it is important that customers have their physical card with them.