Concession cards — the piece of plastic worth more than most payments

Most pages about Australian support systems are about payments. This one is about a card, and for a lot of households with Parkinson’s the card is worth more than any payment they are likely to receive.

The reason is arithmetic. Holding a concession card takes a PBS prescription from $25.00 down to $7.70, and it drops your PBS Safety Net threshold from $1,748.20 to $277.20 — so you reach free medicines after about 36 scripts rather than about 70. It also moves you onto the lower concessional threshold for the Medicare Safety Net. The full working is in the PBS and your Parkinson’s medicines.

The four cards, side by side

The card that arrives without asking: Pensioner Concession Card

Services Australia is unambiguous: “You don’t need to apply for a Pensioner Concession Card.” It is sent automatically if you receive any of these:

• Age Pension
• Carer Payment
• Disability Support Pension
• Parenting Payment single

Both of the payments most relevant to a household with Parkinson’s are on that list. If the person with Parkinson’s is granted the Disability Support Pension, the card follows. If their partner is granted Carer Payment, that card follows too.

There are three further routes worth knowing, because they cover people who are not on a pension at all:

If you are 55 or older and have received JobSeeker Payment, Parenting Payment partnered, or Special Benefit for more than 9 months, the card is sent automatically.

If you have a partial capacity to work and receive JobSeeker Payment, Parenting Payment partnered, or Youth Allowance as a job seeker, the card is sent automatically. That phrase — partial capacity to work — is the one to hold on to. Someone with Parkinson’s who was refused the DSP but assessed as having a reduced capacity to work can end up with the same card by a different road.

If you are a single principal carer on JobSeeker Payment or Youth Allowance as a job seeker.

Services Australia adds a line worth acting on: “If you don’t automatically get a Pensioner Concession Card, you should call us on your regular Centrelink payment line.” Automatic systems miss people.

What the Pensioner Concession Card actually gets you

Beyond cheaper PBS medicines, Services Australia lists:

• bulk billed doctor visits — “which will depend on your doctor if you are eligible for these”
• help with hearing services, through the Hearing Services Program
• discounts to redirect your mail through Australia Post
• an increase in benefits for out-of-pocket, out-of-hospital medical expenses above a threshold, through the Medicare Safety Net

The hearing line is easy to skim past. Hearing loss is common with age and makes every other Parkinson’s difficulty worse — a quiet voice on one side of a conversation and a hard-of-hearing listener on the other is a bad combination. If the card entitles you to hearing services, use them.

The card almost nobody checks: Low Income Health Care Card

This is the one that catches people out, in the good direction.

There is no assets test. Services Australia states it plainly: “You don’t need to pass an assets test.” You can own your home outright and still qualify. What is assessed is “the gross income you earned before tax, from the 8 weeks before you submit your claim.”

The claim limits are:

Two features of this test change what it means for a progressive condition.

It looks backwards eight weeks, not at a whole year. Someone who has just stopped work, cut back their hours, or moved from full pay to unpaid leave can be under the limit almost immediately — long before their annual income figures reflect anything.

The limit to keep the card is higher than the limit to get it. Once you hold the card, the weekly figure rises to $1,013.75 single with no children, and $1,731.25 for a couple combined with no children. So a modest return to work does not automatically cancel it. The card is valid for 12 months and you meet the income test again at each renewal.

The card gets you cheaper PBS medicines, bulk billed doctor visits at your doctor’s discretion, and “a bigger refund for medical costs when you reach the Medicare Safety Net.”

If you are Age Pension age but not on a pension

The Commonwealth Seniors Health Card exists for exactly this gap: self-funded retirees. To get it you must be Age Pension age, meet residence rules, not be receiving an income support payment from Centrelink or the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, provide a tax file number, meet identity requirements, and pass an income test.

The income limits are annual gross taxable income of less than:

• $101,105.00 a year if you are single
• $161,768.00 a year for couples
• $202,210.00 a year for couples separated by illness, respite care or prison

Add $639.60 for each child in your care. Services Australia states directly: “There’s no assets test.” The test reviews on 20 September each year in line with the Consumer Price Index.

The third line in that list is not a technicality. “Couples separated by illness” is a real category with a substantially higher limit, and it becomes relevant when one partner moves into residential care while the other stays at home — a situation many Parkinson’s households eventually face.

Note also that the income test looks at your adjusted taxable income plus deemed income from account-based income streams, so a superannuation pension is not invisible to it.

The Health Care Card, in brief

The Health Care Card is issued automatically with a different set of payments — JobSeeker Payment, Youth Allowance, Austudy, ABSTUDY Living Allowance, Special Benefit, Parenting Payment partnered, the maximum rate of Family Tax Benefit Part A, and Mobility Allowance if you are not receiving the DSP. It is generally issued for up to one year at a time.

For a household with Parkinson’s, the most likely route in is JobSeeker Payment during the period between stopping work and a DSP decision.

What your state adds, and why it varies so much

The federal card is the key; the lock is often at state level. Services Australia lists the kinds of concessions that states, territories and councils attach to a concession card:

The ambulance line matters more in Australia than almost anywhere, because Medicare does not cover ambulances at all and the cost differs in every state. If your household has a falls risk, checking what your card does for ambulance cover in your state is a concrete, same-day task.

Each government publishes its own list:

Western Australia runs its own scheme too; ask Services Australia or your state government where its current list lives.

If this applies to you

This page is not financial or legal advice. Card rules and income limits were checked against Services Australia pages in August 2026. Income test limits are reviewed and indexed during the year — the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card test on 20 September — so confirm the current figures with Services Australia before relying on them.