One benefit of receiving the Age Pension is the Pensioner Concession Card (PCC). But how much value can the PCC provide you?
A pensioner Concession Card is automatically issued to recipients of a social security pension (this includes individuals receiving age pension, disability support pension or carer payment).
National benefits
The PCC provides the following national benefits:
- Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) – Concession cardholders can use the PBS to pay a maximum of $7.70 ($31.60 for non-concession cardholders) for each medicine on the PBS. You can enquire about a medicine’s PBS eligibility at your local pharmacy or on the PBS website.
- Once a concession cardholder pays an amount in a calendar year equal to the PBS safety threshold ($277.20 for concession cardholders), their medicine will be free for the rest of the year.
- Where two or more brands offer the same medicine, they may have different prices and therefore a more expensive brand may charge a premium on top of the PBS prescribed amounts.
- Extended Medicare Safety Net (EMSN) – The EMSN provides an increased rebate for Australian families and singles who incur out-of-pocket costs for Medicare eligible out-of-hospital services. Once the relevant annual threshold of out-of-pocket costs has been met, Medicare will pay up to 80 per cent of any future out-of-pocket costs for out-of-hospital Medicare services for the remainder of the calendar year. Thresholds are indexed on 1 January each year and for 2024 the thresholds are:
- $811.80 for Commonwealth concession cardholders, including those with a Pensioner Concession Card, a Health Care Card or a Commonwealth Seniors Card
- $2,544.30 for all other singles and families
The EMSN is different to and works in conjunction with the Original Medicare Safety Net (OMSN). Under the OMSN, once the annual threshold is reached, Medicare benefits increase to 100 per cent of the Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) fee for out-of-hospital services for the rest of the calendar year. Individuals can be eligible for the EMSN as well as the OMSN.
The OMSN threshold is also indexed on 1 January each year and for 2024 the threshold is $560.40.
- Bulk-billed doctor visits—doctors can receive higher payments from Medicare if they treat a concession cardholder, therefore some practices which do not bulk bill for a general patient may bulk bill for a concession cardholder.
- Australia Post—discounts for stamps and mail redirection. Free document certification.
The PCC also provides additional national benefits which include:
- Hearing services—subsidised hearing aids and assistive listening devices.
- Telstra – Pensioner discount offered for mobile phones, home internet and home phone.
Senior cards
Whilst these benefits are not notional per se, they are common across all eight senior cards:
- Public transport concessions; and
- Local business discounts across Australia and New Zealand.
Each state or territory will have different concessions—we have broken up the various concessions applicable by state below:
-
Australian Capital Territory
-
New South Wales
-
Northern Territory
-
Queensland
-
South Australia
-
Tasmania
-
Victoria
-
Western Australia
The above information is also stored on our website, under Resources and helpful links.
