Up to 210,000 South Australian households could be forced to wait until after winter to receive first energy rebate

Up to 210,000 South Australian households could be forced to wait until after winter to begin receiving $500 in crucial power bill relief.

Up to 210,000 South Australian households could be forced to wait until September to begin receiving $500 in crucial relief from soaring power bills.

The state opposition says the delay could mean eligible households must find the money to pay costly winter bills upfront, then wait months for their entitled rebate.

Treasurer Stephen Mullighan said there were about 420,000 households eligible for the energy bill relief rebate – about half because they already receive state government concessions and the other half because they qualify for Family Tax Benefit A and B, or are carers or veterans.

The group that receives state government concessions will begin to receive the $500 rebate – which is deducted by retailers as $125 from each quarterly bill – from July 1.

However, Mr Mullighan said the state and federal governments must work together to roll out the rebate to the other group, which has not received it before.

Treasurer Stephen Mullighan. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Roy VanDerVegt

Opposition treasury spokesman Matt Cowdrey. Picture: Matt Loxton

“The federal government is basically having to load everyone into a new system so that they can be paid a concession for the first time, and they’re not making any guarantees that they can do that before September,” he said.

“If those federal recipients don’t get the concession on the first of July, they will still get the full $500, they might just have the subsequent quarter loaded up with the quarter that they missed.”

But opposition treasury spokesman Matt Cowdrey said South Australians could be punished by “an information sharing problem between the Labor state and federal governments”.

“This is a real kick in the guts for eligible South Australians counting on this crucial $500 rebate because they might not receive the rebate for months, long after they’ve already covered the cost of skyrocketing energy bills for the winter period,” he said.

He called on the state government to guarantee all eligible South Australian households would receive the rebate from July 1, but Mr Mullighan said that was beyond the state’s control.

The $254.4m rebate scheme was jointly-funded under an agreement between state and federal governments.