If you're a senior of pension age with a valid Pensioner Concession Card or hold a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card issued by either the Department of Human Services or Department of Veterans' Affairs, you may be eligible for the NSW Government's Seniors Travel Card worth $250.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The program in under a two-year trial so even if you got a card last year it's time to apply for another. In Tenterfield Shire 927 seniors received a card in 2020 with little more than half that number -- 542 -- receiving the 2021 version so far.
The travel card is valid for 14 months from the date of issue, and both cards can be used simultaneously if they're in date and have available balance.
READ ALSO:
MP Janelle Saffin estimates that the Regional Seniors Travel Card has so far injected more than $3.5 million into local economies within her electorate of Lismore.
While she still maintains that the initiative should be extended to seniors with a disability and their senior carers, she says there is no doubting the strong take-up of the $250 prepaid Visa cards midway through a current two-year trial.
Last year, a total of 8536 eligible seniors in the Electorate of Lismore successfully applied for a card, and so far this year, a total of 5462 have applied.
Eligible seniors still have until November 30 to apply through Service NSW.
Ms Saffin said she welcomed any government initiative which gave seniors more spending power, particularly to meet transport costs as the card is mostly spent on taxi fares and at servos for fuel.
"Our taxi operators and service station owners are directly benefiting but so too must other local businesses indirectly when local seniors have a little more disposable income,"she said.
"I was glad to have been among a number of MPs who convinced the NSW Government to include veterans groups under the trial, and have continued to lobby on behalf of the most vulnerable - seniors with a disability and their senior carers."
Applications for the card are made online at www.service.nsw.gov.au, by calling 13 77 88 or by visiting a Service NSW Service Centre.