Yahoo Finance 4.6 million Aussies to receive $250 payment this week
Up to five million Australians will receive a $250 payment into their bank accounts this week as the Government rolls out another round of stimulus payments.
The $250 payments will be delivered to 4.6 million Australians, including 2.5 million pensioners and 400,000 self-funded retirees. The fourth round will cost $1.3 billion.
Australians who receive the Carer Allowance and Payment, the Disability Support Pension, Double Orphan Pension and Family Tax Benefit will also be eligible for the payment, along with eligible Veterans Affairs payment recipients.
However, if you receive the Coronavirus Supplement you will not be eligible for the payment.
“Combined, the four Economic Support Payments are expected to inject around $12 billion into the Australian economy,” Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said in a statement.
“As we move towards a more optimistic and stronger recovery this year, this latest payment will provide further support to millions of low income households recovering from the impacts of COVID-19.”
This is the second tranche of two $250 Economic Support Payments, with the first delivered in December 2020.
The payments were first introduced in the 2020-21 Federal Budget as part of the Government's plan for the economic recovery.
They’re designed to mitigate some of the financial pain Australia’s retirees have suffered during the pandemic. Deflation over 2020 meant the pension payment failed to increase for the first time in 23 years.
The payments aren’t taxed and were welcomed by Australia’s peak body representing older retirees when they were announced in the Budget.
“[The payments are] a positive response by government to our strong lobbying for additional help to pensioners at a time that the indexation formula did not deliver an increase in the pension rate,” COTA Australia Chief Executive, Ian Yates, said at the time.
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