The State Government has again been asked to fix the Victorian Patient Transport Assistance Scheme (VPTAS) and the Non-Mains Energy Concession (NMEC) due to increasing numbers of overdue reimbursements.
Gippsland East MP, Tim Bull, has highlighted on more than one occasion this year the excessive delays, which leave local families out of pocket for lengthy periods.
“In relation to VPTAS, this has been going on for some time and, despite government assurances they would fix the issue, we have cases where reimbursements lodged in 2024 are still not paid. Eight months on this is not good enough,” he said.
“People are completing multiple additional visits to specialists before the original claims are paid, and the costs build up. It is a long running program under governments of both persuasion but never has the wait time been so long to obtain reimbursements.”
Mr Bull said it was a similar story with the Non-Mains Energy Concession.
“This is a program aimed to support concession card holders who source non-mains energy (eg. firewood) for their heating, cooking and hot water. In this time of a firewood shortage and price increases it is particularly important,” he said.
“However, like VPTAS, we have households waiting over five months to receive their reimbursements.
“One constituent, Tim Elrington, of Lakes Entrance, submitted his NMEC claim on January 3 this year. As he’d not heard anything, he resubmitted in March
and received an auto-response saying it could take up to 28 days to respond to his email.
“He called again in June to enquire as to the status of his claim and was advised his claim had been processed at the end of May and to expect payment within the next week – he’s still waiting.”
Mr Elrington’s wife also has two VPTAS claims outstanding – submitted in mid-January and March of this year.
“When we asked the Minister during question time in Parliament, she asked for the names of those impacted. The following day we provided them, which seemed to upset her, despite her asking for this information,” Mr Bull said.
“The point is, you should not need individual names to fix what is known to be a widespread problem.
“In addition to the slowness receiving claims, those who call the hotline to check the status of their claims and whether they have been received, are disconnected. It is a shambles the Minister should fix,” he said.
