ARARAT Neighbourhood House is currently aiding residents to complete their power saving bonus applications.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just finished one today, actually,\u201d said manager, Lou Makin.<\/p>\n
The $250 Power Saving Bonus is a one-off payment that helps alleviate some of the stress that vulnerable Victorian households may experience when paying their power bill. The Victorian Government has partnered with a range of organisations, including Ararat Neighbourhood House.<\/p>\n
Initially slated to end on January 31, 2022, the program has now been extended it until the end of June.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople normally are happy to get the assistance, [but] the messaging has not always been clear \u2013 some people don\u2019t get [that] it is a once-off,\u201d Ms Makin said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe take the pressure off [people] because it can be daunting for older people with the online world,\u201d she explained. To that end, Ararat Neighbourhood House have set up a generic email address for people to use on their applications.<\/p>\n
In order to be eligible for the power rebate, Ms Makin said that people need to hold a concession card from Centrelink (pensioner or health care card), or be on a Job Seeker, Abstudy, Youth Allowance, or Austudy payment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe system has ironed out hiccups since April last year. We had to chase stuff up but now it is streamlined. It takes ten business days. The money is issued via a cheque, or a deposit into their bank,\u201d Ms Makin explained.<\/p>\n
Since the program started, Ms Makin and the team at Ararat Community House has assisted approximately 70 people, which Ms Makin says is a \u201csignificant number in a small country town.\u201d<\/p>\n
Locals who have approached Ararat Neighbourhood House for assistance with their power rebate applications have learned about the offer via their Facebook page and their website. \u201cThere is a gap if they are not online\u201d, Ms Makin said. To try and bridge this gap, ANH have put up flyers around the area, encouraged word of mouth, and told people who come in about the offer of assistance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe normally like to make an appointment. We are happy to help.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Makin said that it for people wanting to take advantage of Ararat Neighbourhood House\u2019s offer of assistance when applying for their electricity and gas rebate can schedule an appointment by calling (03) 5352 1551, from 9am to 3pm, Monday to Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ARARAT Neighbourhood House is currently aiding residents to complete their power saving bonus applications.
\nThe $250 Power Saving Bonus is a one-off payment that helps alleviate some of the stress that vulnerable Victorian households may experience when paying their power bill. The Victorian Government has partnered with a range of organisations, including Ararat Neighbourhood House.
\nInitially slated to end on January 31, 2022, the program has now been extended it until the end of June.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":705,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[31],"class_list":["post-706","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/IMG_6822.jpg?fit=1920%2C1280&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdqUu4-bo","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=706"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/706\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=706"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=706"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=706"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=706"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}