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Rates Financial Hardship applications

What is financial hardship?

As outlined in our Rates Financial Hardship Policy 2021, financial hardship is defined as an inability of the person or business to meet their financial obligations, rather than an unwillingness to do so.

Financial hardship occurs when a person or business is reasonably unable, because of illness, unemployment, or other reasonable cause, to discharge their financial obligations.

Financial hardship can arise from:

  • Loss of employment of the property owner or family member.
  • Family breakdown.
  • Economic abuse through family violence.
  • Illness, including physical incapacity, hospitalization, or mental illness of the property owner or a family member.
  • A death in the family.
  • Other factors resulting in unforeseen change in the person or business’s capacity to meet their payment obligations, whether through a reduction in income or through an increase in non-discretionary expenditure.

You can apply to access the financial hardship provisions of this policy by completing the below form, including the details of the circumstances preventing that person or business from meeting their financial obligations to Council.

Assessment

The application for financial hardship will be assessed confidentially and objectively based on the information provided in the application and Council will advise of its decision in writing within 10 business days of your submission.

The application form referred to above is not required where a ratepayer is seeking either a deferral of rates or a payment plan of less than three months. A verbal application will be accepted.

Apply for a Rates Payment Arrangement here

Victorian home owners with eligible concession cards can claim a deduction on Council rates for their principle place of residence.

Find out more about pensioner concessions for rates

 

Financial hardship form

Your address (as listed on your rates notice)
Owner(s) Details
If different to the address provided above
If different to the address provided above
Dependents
Dependents' details
Please provide the age of each dependant
Status
Spouse/De facto
Are you a pensioner
i.e. Medical Certificate

Allowed file upload: unlimited
File must be less than 30 MB
Allowed file types: txt rtf pdf doc docx odt ppt pptx odp xls xlsx ods jpg png
Total upload limit per form is 30 MB
Assets (Provide dollar value and details)
$
(this property)
$
$
(Total Value incl. Banks, Building Societies & Credit Unions)
$
(Total Value)
$
$
Income (Total yearly Income from all sources)
$
(includes Workcover)
$
(state the type of pension)
$
(rent or board)
$
$
(includes share dividends)
$
$
(Provide Details)
Expenses (your monthly expenses)
$
$
(i.e. insurance, maintenance etc)
$
$
$
$
(i.e. gas, electricity, telephone etc)
(i.e. food, petrol, insurances, registration etc)
Liabilities
(on this property)
(investment property/land)
Provide in dollar value what, if any, is owing on the following
Declaration