Eligible NSW households will be able to access an additional $ 400 in vouchers to help cover energy costs in response to rising wholesale prices.
On Thursday afternoon, Treasurer Matt Kean announced an increase in the state’s energy bill payment assistance program for households suffering from short-term financial difficulties. Program limits will increase from $ 300 to $ 400, up to a maximum of $ 1,600 per year.
“That means the annual voucher cap has been raised from $ 1,200 to $ 1,600 per household,” Kean said.
The Australian energy regulator on Thursday announced double-digit jumps in household and small business bills across the country in just a few weeks, with price limits on what retailers can charge that will increase.
The so-called “default market bids” – the price limits that retailers can charge households and businesses that do not accept special offers or bundle utility bills – would increase in all states of the coastal power grid this, the regulator said on Thursday. .
As of July 1, default bids will increase by 14 per cent, or $ 227, in NSW; 11 percent, or $ 165, in Queensland; and 7 per cent, or $ 124, in South Australia.
NSW Prime Minister Dominic Perrottet said cost-of-living measures would be crucial to next month’s state budget, insisting his government’s energy policy had not failed as families prepared for bills. of electricity increase to $ 227.
“The different states have different initiatives and the NSW budget is on June 21 … we will go through the budget process, just as we are doing right now,” he said.
NSW Prime Minister Dominic Perrottet on Thursday. Credit: Dean Sewell
Perrottet said rising energy prices were both a national and a global problem in an environment of high inflation.