Power Saving Bonus (PSB) Resources

In this section:

Power Saving Bonus Overview

Victorian concession card households can apply for the new $100 Bonus by visiting the Victorian Energy Compare website (compare.energy.vic.gov.au), calling the VEC helpline (1800 000 832) to apply over the phone, or apply in-person through a participating community organisation.

The $100 Power Saving Bonus for Victorian Households (PSB5) is limited to one payment per eligible household.

Outreach Partners are responsible for supporting eligible households to apply for the $100 payment, facilitated primarily through the Outreach Portal. Using the Outreach Portal, Outreach Partners are required to:

confirm eligibility for the new round of the PSB, capture applicant information, and upload supporting documentation where available to the Portal to submit PSB5 applications
monitor the progress of applications post submission
provide case management support where required to support the households’ applications to be processed, and if approved, paid in a timely manner. (see case management below).

Energy affordability support

Outreach Partners will be required to provide households applying for the $100 payment through the Outreach Program with simple energy affordability support to assist them with the affordability of their energy bill.

Energy affordability support provided during the application submission process will focus on information and advice on simple, high impact ways to reduce energy costs. This support will focus on partners undertaking checks of applicant bills for energy concessions, the Best Offer and any debts.

Where a check of an applicant’s bill shows missing energy concessions; a Best Offer notification saving, or an outstanding amount from a previous bill, Outreach Partners are to advise the applicant to call their energy retailer to make changes to their account or to apply for the Utility Relief Grant Scheme. Applicants that require additional support to contact their retailer should be referred to DEECA’s free Energy Assistance Program (1800 161 215).

Further guidance on the delivery of energy affordability support will be provided during PSB training sessions.

Eligibility

To be eligible for the fifth round of the Power Saving Bonus program, Victorian households will need to:

Have a recent residential electricity bill and be the account holder for that bill
Hold one of the following concession cards:
- Health Care Card
- Pensioner Concession Card
- Veterans Affairs Pensioner Concession Card; or
- Veterans’ Affairs Gold Card

s a part of the application process applicants will also be required to provide a secondary form of identification to for authentication purposes, this can include a driver’s license, Medicare card, ImmiCard or Australian Visa. Information collected is shared with the Australian Government to confirm identity and is not retained by DEECA.

It is encouraged that where possible, Outreach Partners upload a copy of the applicant’s most recent electricity bill, when an application is submitted.

Training

All staff who will be helping households to apply for the $100 payment will be required to complete a 1-hour onboarding training session. This includes staff who have previously supported previous iterations of the Power Saving Bonus program.

You can see a recording of the PSB Staff Training here:

See the recording

See the slides

An additional training session was held for site managers. This session covered the more complex topics and troubleshooting. Only one person per organisation needs to attend this session, preferably a manager or project lead. This session should be in addition to one of the above sessions.

You can see a recording of the PSB Site Manager Training here:

See the recording

See the slides

DEECA staff will also be available for drop-in sessions throughout the program for any questions. You are not required to attend these. Dates will be confirmed shortly.

Portal Access

You should now have access to the PSB Portal. If you are having issues with the portal, please contact outreach.vec@deeca.vic.gov.au.

If you have additional staff who need portal access, you can add them here: Request portal access

Please note: Staff must view the staff training recording prior to accessing the portal. All staff must have their own portal log-in.

Marketing Materials

We have created marketing materials and had the content approved by DEECA.

If you require additional materials, please let us know and we can work on new items.

Find marketing materials here.

You can also access Canva templates to add your Neighbourhood House information:

If using these templates, please do not remove elements. You may move them around (with the exception of the Vic Gov logo and NHVic logo), and you may add to the poster.

Finance

If you have not already completed the funding agreement, please contact psb@nhvic.org.au.

The agreement covers the following:

NHVic will pay $450+GST funding to named houses/centres upon program commencement upon receipt of an invoice from the named house/centre.
NHVic will pay $12+GST funding per completed application to named house/centre up to a total number of 10,000 applications across the program. NHVic will endeavour to communicate regularly with the total number of applications to ensure reasonable notice.
The named house/centre will invoice for completed applications within 2 weeks of month end in order to receive the funding listed in (2).
The named house/centre will take reasonable measures to assist community members with their application for the power saving bonus and simple energy affordability support.

Initial payment

NHVic will pay $450+GST funding to named houses/centres upon program commencement upon receipt of an invoice from the Neighbourhood House after the agreement is signed.

Ongoing payments

NHVic will pay $12+GST funding per completed application. Please send us the invoice for completed applications within 2 weeks of month end in order to receive the funding.

The ongoing funding is capped at 10,000 total applications. NHVic will keep all participating houses informed of the numbers so you are aware when we are approaching that number and thus the end of that funding.

Case Management

Where additional information is required to confirm the eligibility of an application, in the first instance DEECA will contact the applicant directly via email. Outreach Partners will be responsible for providing additional support in the following circumstances:

Applicants with personal email addresses who fail to respond to DEECA information requests within a 2-week period via sms or phone and where required providing direct support to assist them to provide the required additional information.
Applicants without personal email addresses within 72 hours of their application becoming a case via sms or phone to advise them additional information is required and provide direct support to assist them to it.

Email notification and reports will be provided via the Outreach Portal to assist Outreach Partners to undertake these activities.