Eligible South Australians on low or fixed incomes can receive help with water and sewerage rates.
Apply or update your details
Use the online form to apply for all household concessions, or to update your details - eg address, energy account, or bank details.
You'll need:
- your Centrelink Customer Reference Number (CRN) or Department of Veterans' Affairs file number
- If you don't have one of these - a copy of your most recent tax assessment.
- information from your most recent electricity and water bills
- your ownership number from your most recent Notice of Emergency Services Levy Assessment (homeowners only).
What happens next
How your concession is paid depends on how you are charged for water and sewerage - how payments are made
Who should apply
You must:
- own or rent your principal place of residence
- pay for water supply and/or all water usage
- hold an eligible card, receive an eligible Centrelink payment or meet low income provisions.
Eligible cards
- Pensioner Concession Card
- Veteran Gold Card:
- Totally and Permanently Incapacitated (TPI)
- Extreme Disablement Adjustment (EDA)
- War Widow
- issued to a person with 80 or more overall impairment points under the Military Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2004
- Low Income Health Care Card
Eligible Centrelink payments
- JobSeeker Payment
- Youth Allowance
- Parenting Payment
- Special Benefit
- Community Development Program (CDP)
- Self-Employment Allowance
- ABSTUDY
- Austudy
- Farm Household Allowance (FHA)
- War widow pension under legislation of the United Kingdom or New Zealand.
Low income provisions
You must demonstrate that you and your spouse or domestic partner meet low-income provisions.
Residential parks
If you live in a residential park, you could be eligible for a combined concession for your water, sewerage and energy.
How payments are made
- SA Water customers: your concession is applied directly to your water or sewerage account as a credit.
- Not with SA Water: your concession is paid into your bank account by electronic funds transfer (EFT).
- Council Community Wastewater Management Systems (CWMS) charges: Your sewerage concession is paid directly into your bank account by electronic funds transfer (EFT).
Concession amount
Concession amounts are indexed each financial year.
Water
The water concession is calculated as up to 30% of your total water bill for a financial year, subject to the minimum and maximum amounts in the table below.
Amount (2023-24) | |
|---|---|
| Minimum for homeowner-occupier | $225.60 |
| Maximum for homeowner-occupier | $359.70 |
| Minimum for tenants who pay for all water usage and supply charges | $225.60 |
| Maximum for tenants who pay for all water usage and supply charges | $359.70 |
| Minimum for tenants who pay for all water usage only | $146.30 |
| Maximum for tenants who pay for all water usage only | $280.40 |
Sewerage
The current maximum sewerage rate remission is $134.10 a year.
Note: tenants are not eligible for a concession on sewerage rates.
Tenants
Information about water and other charges should be included in your lease agreement. You could be separately billed for water supply and/or usage even if nothing is written in your agreement.
You might be charged quarterly or as part of your weekly rent.
Check your agreement or separate water bill for charges for:
- supply – a set quarterly amount
- usage – payment per kilolitre (kL) used
- excess or partial usage – charges for water above a set kL limit.
Top up payments
An additional annual payment made when water bills for a full financial year exceed certain amounts.
Your bill/s for the 2022-23 financial year must be more than the amount shown below to be eligible for a top up.
| Amount | |
|---|---|
| Tenants who pay only for all water usage | over $487.67 |
| Tenants who pay for all water usage and supply charges | over $752.00 |
| Homeowners | over $752.00 |
Top ups are automatically applied to eligible SA Water customers.
Homeowners with council or privately supplied water and private tenants must provide bills for the whole financial year to receive a top up payment. The bills must clearly show amounts charged for water.
Phone the ConcessionsSA Hotline to find out if you are eligible for a top up payment.
Contact
Email: concessions@sa.gov.au
Phone: ConcessionsSA Hotline (9:00 am to 5:00 pm, Monday to Friday) - 1800 307 758
Translations: to arrange an onsite or telephone interpreter, or to have a document translated, please call the Interpreting and Translating Centre (ITC) on 1800 280 203.
