Commonwealth Seniors Health Card:
We recently reminded you not to miss out on the benefits of a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card. We projected that almost one million retirees would now be eligible.
In our overview of the benefits of the card and how to make an easy application, we raised the question of how long a typical, straightforward application might take. This is the question we asked the Centrelink media team, but unfortunately that was not information that was readily available, with the business specialists advising ‘the data you’ve requested is not readily available’.
However, Services Australia General Manager, Hank Jongen, was kind enough to provide quite a lot of additional information which we share below.
Hank Jongen says:
‘We know people want to get their Commonwealth Seniors Health Card (CSHC) as soon as possible. Each person’s circumstances are different, so claim processing times for the CSHC can vary depending on complexity.
Services Australia’s staff work hard to process all claims as quickly as possible, but there are a few things you can do to help:
We encourage people to check their eligibility first’
“It’s also a good idea to gather the documents needed before starting your online CSHC claim
Couples can now submit a combined claim online, making it easier to upload your supporting documents at the same time. I encourage people with complex circumstances to speak with us about their specific circumstances.
Additional information also provided by the Centrelink team:
If you have claimed a payment previously you can use your Customer Reference Number (CRN) to link your account. There is more information, including the steps to confirm your identity and link your account if you don’t have a CRN, in this online guide to claiming on the Centrelink website.
Retirement Essentials also has more information about the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card here.
If you would like to do a quick calculation on your possible eligibility, Retirement Essentials offers a free Age Pension Entitlements Calculator which can do the sums quickly and easily on your behalf. The calculator also assesses CSHC eligibility.
Separately, if you would like support to make an application, we offer two levels of assistance.
- A DIY support service to check your application before you apply
- A Concierge service which means Retirement Essentials checks and lodges all your information on your behalf
What about you?
Have you applied yet?
If so, how did you go?
If you haven’t started you can do so here.
We want to apply senior health card.
HI Min thank you for requesting assistance! We have emailed you the next steps to get a claim up and running.
Hon’ble Sir,
Apologise have applied for Common Senior Health Card on20th May 2023 having age of 72 yrs and suffering with Stoke and can’t walk properly due
to unbalance of my stability I remains under depression due to my soulmate
( Wife) passed away due to her lung disease few months ago. I have to pay
all the medicines very costly, Taxi charges some misc. expenses due to my financial position are difficult for me .l can’t walk and am impairing speech not in a position to know names of son, relatives and friends and spending my time at home and meeting them due to my impairing of my ,remains toy Stroke which s due to my bad luck whereas I was working as a Branch Manager of a leading Bank of India Moreover have unbalance of my walk and fell down. I am a Permanent Resident of Australia since March 2020.
my Common Wealth Senior Health Card has not been delivered till now say
even after 04 months and 12 days. I request you to talk with to supply my card as early as possible.
Kind Regards
Ramesh Chander
Hi Ramesh, thank you for reaching out and I am sorry to hear of your situation. Ramesh as much as I would love to contact Centrelink on your behalf to organise new cards we can only do this for paying customers as they need to set Retirement Essentials as their nominee with Centrelink. You would need to call Centrelink on 132 300 to confirm they have the right address and get new cards posted to you.
Is the a lump sum commutation of a SMSF pension counted as income for CS card
Hi Mary, thanks for seeking clarity. No lump sum commutations from an SMSF pension are not counted as income for the CSHC or the Age Pension.
I have been trying to apply for a Health card for myself as my wife does not want one BUT the info they want has been “doing my brain” so I have not completed the application. They still want info about my wife; about how/when we entered Australia; what visa were we on etc (we have both long been citizens). So I have still not applied (I am 77).
Dealing with this bureaucracy is NEVER easy
Hi John, thank you for sharing your experience trying to lodge a claim! You aren’t wrong, there are a lot of questions and some can appear irrelevant so it is not easy. If you were to use our service to proceed with a claim we can’t ignore the questions Centrelink asks but we will give you the guidance and support to understand them and ensure every i is dotted and t crossed to avoid any mistakes and get your claim approved as quickly as possible.
Don’t forget about the Lower Income Health Care Card when on the Super pension phase. Whilst slightly lower income/assets cut offs, there are many more benefits than with the CSHC. And at less than 67 yo.
YOU MAY WAIT UP TO ONE HOUR TO TALK TO CENTRELINK ON THE PHONE.
I had a basic consultation on the health card with Sharon and it was terrific. I now see that I am eligible and will make use of the next level service to put my application in as it saves getting it wrong and then having to start again or worse still a piece of incorrect information gets in the system
Is the Commonwealth health card payment in addition to the pension?
Hi Ian. Thanks for your question. The CSHC gives you are range of benefits such as discounts on prescriptions, bulk billing and a range of different state based benefits that can differ depending on where you live. All of these benefits are also available with the Pensioner Concession Card and there are no additional payments, beyond what the Age Pension gives, that come with the CSHC. The difference is that many people who don’t qualify for the Age Pension and the benefits from the Pensioner Concession Card might be able to get the CSHC as it doesn’t have an assets test and the income thresholds are much higher meaning more people will qualify. You can find out more here.
Where does the income for deeming come from.? Previous tax year?
Hi Christopher, thank you for your question! Centrelink have two parts to their income assessment for the CSHC. There is your “Adjusted Assessable Income”, which is based on you most recent financial year’s Tax Return/Notice Of Assessment, then there is the deemed income from any income streams you have. So deeming rates are only applied in the assessment for superannuation pension accounts, no other assets have income deemed from them.
Hi Ian, thanks for your question! You only receive EITHER the Age Pension OR the CSHC, never both. The Age Pension comes with a Pensioner Concession Card which includes all the health benefits of the CSHC plus more.
My wife and i are both now actively receiving part pension and hold pensioner concession cards. Does this automatically extend across to the CSHC or do we need to apply again to receive this
Hi Ian. You no longer need the CSHC as the Pensioner Concession Card gives you all of the same benefits
I have tried to apply for the Commonwealth Seniors Card on 3 occasions in recent times.
My problems with applying occurred when trying to upload the requested documentation to support the application.
Each time I found that uploading documents could not exceed 5mb.
One of my documents exceeded 5mb so I relied on Australia Post to get this document to Services Australia before the 2 week expiry date for my application became due.
Each time when I waited for the result of my application I would receive a letter from Services Australia to say that my application has expired and I would need to reapply.
When I am in the right frame of mind I will try again.
Hi Denis, thank you for sharing your claim experience! If you did wish to use our service we can help you reduce file sizes and split them in to multiple smaller files if need be to ensure your documents can be lodged digitally. Regarding the delays posting documents to Centrelink, we proactively advise our customer to never post documents as we are yet to see it be received and actioned accordingly.
I’m in the process of doing this for my husband who is unwell. I’ve uploaded all the required documents but he is still required to go to Centrelink in person. It seems ridiculous and is very difficult as he has mobility issues, awaiting an operation. I haven’t been able to get him there yet.
can someone at centreline advise why they require a 14 page questionnaire to be completed in respect of EACH income stream received. we have 9 from 3 providers and they will be none too happy to provide such an excess of info. why wouldn’t a copy of the latest fund provided statement suffice?
I found it a lot easier to go onto a branch when I applied for my Health care card, I always found the staff very helpful and friendly, even though I had approx. 14 visits and over a period of four months to three branches due to moving house during this time, and most visits were without appointments. my case was a little difficult as well due to a takeover of my Superannuation.
proving my ID has been difficult due to being remarried. While my medicare card is in my current name. centrelink had my previous name when getting the family tax benefit. It meant a trip into centrelink with paperwork. A tip from centrelink always try and call early in the morning and the wait time is reduced. This was a great tip as was on hold for about 20 minutes.
I disagree. Centrelink cut you off well before that. Well before you get a chance to talk to a real person. And then they seem to keep your number so you do not even proceed to the queue after that
I’m struggling to get a Centrelink number. I’ve tried online several times but given up. I can’t face the humiliation of going into a Centrelink office nor a long wait on the phone. I’ve given up on this.
We visited a Centrelink office to get our Centrelink numbers. No humiliation at all. You have, I hope, paid your taxes over the years. You are entitled to seek any benefits as a result. Go early and the wait shouldn’t be too long. We were in and out inside 40 mins, and the person who dealt with us was just delightful. If you already have a CRN you can make an appointment.
I submitted my application in person some months ago. Still no news.
My wife and I applied for the card in Nov 2022 online and went into centreline to verify our identity (required for all) we received our cards in 3 weeks. The online process was not straight forward and find all the documents and uploading them was difficult. The centreline staff we very helpful and approachable
Service NSW also offers a ‘help complete forms’ service too. This can be done over the phone, or face-to-face appointments. Waiting times apply!
I am a self funded retiree. My wife still continues to work, but collectively our income is now below the new threshold for my Health Card. I had a Centrelink CRN from previous dealings, so applied on-line. I read the requirements and collected the relative documents they requested. The process took about 2 hours to apply. I did not need to contact Centrelink either by phone or in-person. I received my Health Card the next day. Yes, within 24 hours.
I applied on line on a Sunday afternoon. Got a text message at 2.30 to confirm my application was received. Got another text at 4.30. Saying my card would arrive within 2 weeks so approved within 2 hours.
I have yet to see actually stated that if one has a Aged Pension card , this precludes one from taking out a Commonwealth Health Card……is this the case ??
Under a Pension card , are the benefits greater than under the Commonwealth Health card ?
Many thanks for the input
Neil Callie
Hi Neil, thanks for pointing out a potential blind spot! When you get the Age Pension you also receive a Pensioner Concession Card (PCC) and this card includes ALL of the benefits of the Commonwealth Seniors Health Card (CSHC) PLUS MORE! So you are right on both fronts, the PCC is the better card to be on which therefore means there is no need to have both. You apply for whichever one you are entitled to.
I would like share my experience. It took at least 5 weeks in the whole process to get an CSHC card when applying with Centrelink. I spent at least 15-20 hours in the application process. I did not expect a so high level of the bureaucracy involved as well as an extremely poor service provided by Centrelink staff. I have not contacted Centrelink for the past over 25 years. I was facing with numerous problems. This resulted to write a complaint (over 4 pages long) to Centrelink.
After receiving an CSHC card I was disappointed as not much benefits are actually provided to the card holders in Victoria in comparison on what is stated on the Centrelink general website.
Hi, I also applied for the Seniors Health Care Card and after jumping through various hoops which took a lot of time and stress, it only covers pharmaceutical items such as prescriptions. As I don’t take any medication this card is useless for me, and I still work, so not entitled to any pension benefits.
I applied for my health card renewal on 13 June 2023. Expired on 5 July 2023. Today is 30 July 2023 till waiting for the health card approval. In the past, it took 3 weeks.
I have applied for a Seniors Health Care card online for myself and my wife. I filled in all the relevant information, and down loaded all the required forms. The problem is that the last thing that is required is for a visit to a Centrelink office for identification. Why then do they say you can apply for the card online, when you still have to visit an Centrelink office. I am 75 years old and have health and mobility problems. I will find it hard to make a visit. Do Centrelink purposely make it difficult to apply.
Hi. I have a cshc and the only things that I can clam is for cheaper medicine, I am 75 and single I lost my pension due to a divorce settlement. AM I missing out on any other items that I may be able to claim for.
My husband and I have a CSHC and have sold an investment property. The capital gain puts us above the income threshold for this year only. I have rung Centrelink twice to report this to see if we lose our cards but could not find anyone who knows!
Hi Jan, thanks for reaching out. I can confirm that a capital gain is NOT treated as income for social security income support purposes. The part most people get caught out on is that if a capital loss is made it cannot be offset against other income amounts.
My husband and I both applied in person for the health card on 20th July and so far we have not heard anything. We spent over 1 hour with the staff at Centrelink and everything was in order.When should we expect an answer?
Hi Gail, thank you for reaching out, you are not alone! We call Centrelink every week to follow up on our customers’ claims and we’ve been advised the assessors are roughly 8 weeks behind. So it is not uncommon for claims to sit idle for 2-3 months with no activity at all just waiting for the assessors to review them.
My husband and I applied for the CSHC approx close to 3months ago, all paper work has been recieved.
How long will we need to wait to recieve.
Hi Carol, thank you for your query! Our experience at the moment is that Centrelink are taking 3 months to review claims so if that is how long ago you lodged yours then you should expect to hear from them any day now.
I applied through Services Australia in Quirindi NSW. They faxed my application for a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card and supporting documents away on 22/12/23 (over 5 weeks ago). When will I hear anything?
I applied in October 2023 and still haven’t received my card or been provided with any feedback or status update. Who can you contact to get an update?