Aussies set to lose out on millions in unused vouchers this weekend

If you haven’t yet taken advantage of the NSW Government’s freebie scheme, you better get to it, because it expires this weekend.

Some Australian residents are set to miss out on millions of dollars worth of vouchers, as the expiry date on the Stay NSW scheme looms.

NSW residents have until Sunday October 9, to use the $50 hotel voucher, of which many will go to waste.

Towards the end of September, just 636,000 vouchers of the more than two million issued had been redeemed since the scheme was rolled out in February to help lure residents to book a stay at a hotel around the state.

Around 3000 participating accommodation providers were part of the scheme, including caravan parks, hotels and motels. But according to Service NSW, about $74 million worth of Stay NSW vouchers still sit unused across the state.

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Millions of dollars in vouchers sit untouched by NSW residents. Picture: Gaye Gerard

Prior to the October school holidays and Labour Day long weekend, NSW Customer Service Minister Victor Dominello encouraged residents to use their vouchers or essentially watch them go down the drain.

“Don’t miss out – with only two weeks left, use them or lose them,” he said.

“Whether you want to book a weekend away to the coast or a rural area or take the kids to a movie or wildlife park, the school holidays are an opportune time for people to spend their vouchers,” he said.

Wanting to use them for some good, tiler Mark Ross told the ABC he wanted to see unused vouchers used to help victims of flooding in Ballina on the state’s north coast.

In an attempt to help flood-impacted victims, he had collected around 100 vouchers throughout September and was passing on the donated vouchers to a hotel to provide discounted rooms for flood victims.

“I wasn’t flood-affected myself, but a lot of my friends were and I saw how devastating it was for them,” Mr Ross said.

“The donor community is just so generous and they just keep putting a hand up.”

NSW residents are being encouraged to spend their Stay NSW voucher before the end of the weekend. Picture: Richard Dobson

While the Stay NSW along with the Parents NSW vouchers are the last of the state’s pandemic recovery vouchers to expire, a similar plea to spend happened in July when the Dine and Discover credits expired.

The government handed out 32 million Dine and Discover vouchers under a program launched in March 2021 to help local businesses stay afloat during the Covid pandemic.

As of June 26, $820 million had been spent on people eating and going out. But at the time of the program expiring, about 12 million vouchers remained unused by the cut off on June 30.

NSW residents are being reminded to use their Stay NSW vouchers before they expire this weekend. Picture: Phil Brown

Following the plea from the NSW Government for residents to quickly use their Dine and Discover vouchers ahead of June 30, many claimed they went out with the specific intention of spending their vouchers only to be left having to dig into their own pockets when it came time to pay.

It’s understood that for many, the Service NSW app displayed an error message in place of the $25 vouchers.

A Service NSW spokesperson told 7 News at the time the issue had been resolved, however many residents continued to report problems.

“The Service NSW vouchers database experienced an outage at 5.01pm. Service NSW investigated and resolved the issue by 6pm,” they said.