Murraylands councils’ hardship policies can ease the pain of increased rates

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Australians are already finding it difficult to meet the rising costs of living from the Reserve Bank continuing to push up interest rates, and the increased council rates may be unbearable for some people.

The Murray Bridge council will raise its property rates by 6.9 per cent in the current financial year, and the Coorong council will raise its rates by 9.5%.

The good news is that the two councils each have a hardship policy, which not everyone may know about, but which could make a real difference to ratepayers.

Murray Bridge council’s chief financial officer, Brad Warncken, explained that the council’s hardship policy could help “anyone going through financial hardship”.

“It’s generally around assisting ratepayers with their rates via ways of payment arrangements, or looking at some of the other mechanisms that might be in play, so that they aren’t overburdened,” he said.

Ratepayers need to submit a financial hardship application to the council in writing.

The application requires applicants to provide details about their property, their outstanding rates and their financial situation.

Rates financial hardship application form131KB ∙ PDF fileDownloadDownload

“We normally advise (applicants) to seek some financial advice when doing that – we’re not financial advisers,” Mr Warncken said.

Charities such as the Salvation Army offered financial assistance, he said: “quite often we’re working with those guys in these scenarios”.

He said that the hardship policy generally played out as a payment plan or a deferral of rates.

“Depending on the ratepayer and the scenario, there are some other things around rate postponement for senior ratepayers or on medical grounds,” he said.

“The two mechanisms that sit on the side in conjunction with the hardship policy, particularly around senior rate payers, is the senior rate payer postponement, where they would only need to pay $500 each year; the rest is deferred and tied to the property.

“Also, for a primary place of residence a rate capping applies, so providing there’s been no change to the property, and if it’s a primary place of residence, if there’s a rate increase greater than 15%, or 7.5% for seniors, they can apply to have a rate capping applied.”

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With the exploding cost of living, you might expect that a lot more people might be accessing financial hardship arrangements, but Mr Warncken said the number of applicants in Murray Bridge hadn’t blown out.

“There’s often one or two rolling through – it’s certainly not in the thousands,” he said.

Mr Warncken said that the Murray Bridge council was yet to see the results of this year’s rate rise.

“The first-quarter instalment is due on the sixth of September, and that will incorporate the rate rise,” he said.

“I expect once the first rates instalment goes out, that’s when people will see what the rates are and what their impact is.”

Mr Warncken suggested that a staggered payment plan could be a good way of staying on top of council rates.

The Coorong council also has a financial hardship policy, which allows ratepayers who are experiencing financial hardship to apply for a long-term payment arrangement over 12 months or more.

• Get help with rates in the Murray Bridge district: murraybridge.sa.gov.au.
• Get help with rates in the Coorong district: coorong.sa.gov.au.

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