Card discriminates against carers: senior

The initiative was a key Nationals policy going into the March 2019 election and promised seniors a $250 pre-loaded debit card to use to pay for taxis, public transport or fuel.

But since launching state-wide at the end of January, the card's strict criteria has been heavily criticised.

Albury's Penny McInnes hoped the card would provide her and her husband Graeme some financial relief and help them get to specialist medical appointments.

But upon applying for the card Mrs McInnes discovered despite holding a seniors card for five years, neither her nor her husband were eligible as they weren't receiving age pensions.

At the moment Mrs McInnes receives a wife's pension from the government while Mr McInnes is on a disability pension and both have seniors cards.

"We get fuel once a fortnight when we get paid [our pension] and we have to make it last that fortnight," she said.

"My husband is very ill and I need to drive him to appointments and his lung specialist in Wangaratta, the card would be really handy to help pay for fuel.

"As it is we don't go far, we go to bingo to get some relief a couple of times a week and we go to our blues club once a month if Graeme is well enough. Other than that we don't go anywhere."

Once Mr McInnes turns 66 in April, he will move from a disability pension to the aged pension and will be eligible for the card. But even once Mrs McInnes is 66, in May, she will remain ineligible for the card because it is not open to people on a carer pension, even if they are old enough to qualify for the age pension.

"This is blatant discrimination, why is there a difference between two old pensioners and pensioners like my husband and I?" she said.

Mrs McInnes believes the criteria should be expanded to include everyone eligible for a seniors card, including carers.

"I'm a senior, it says senior travel card. It's for hardship and to help with increased cost of living expenses, I have those extra living costs as well and I also have a husband who is very, very ill," she said.

Last week the government extended the card's criteria to include pension-aged veterans and war widows after backlash.

Minister for Regional Transport Paul Toole ruled out further changes to card eligibility, but said the government was committed to improving access to transport services for vulnerable members of the community.