www.smh.com.au
April 26, 2010
Pensioners will have their payments cut if they sell excess electricity from their solar electricity systems, the federal government has confirmed. Former policeman Rod Campbell, 63, collects a carer's pension while looking after his wife, and spent $11,000 to install solar panels on his home in the NSW town of Port Macquarie. He said he discovered the government's rules would lead his pension to be cut. ''The government preaches that it wants you to cut your carbon footprint and as soon as you do it they punish you for it,'' Mr Campbell told News Ltd papers.
Mr Campbell said the issue was confirmed in a letter from the office of Families Minister Jenny Macklin, which said the social security test applied to any money from an electricity company ''either as a direct payment or as a credit or rebate on a person's electricity bill''. ''We could suffer a loss of pension for trying to do a good thing,'' Mr Campbell said.
A spokeswoman for Ms Macklin said: ''If a pensioner sells power back to the grid and receives cash payments or a rebate on their power bill that is counted as income for social security purposes.'' Family First Senator Steve Fielding said the situation was "penny pinching by a stingy government'' at a time when pensioners faced rising electricity prices. ''People have done the right thing and signed up to help the environment like the PM wanted them to and now they're being penalised for it. It's just disgusting,'' he said.
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