The City of Newcastle offers help to ratepayers who are experiencing genuine financial difficulties in paying their rates and charges.

Help is offered as part of the City of Newcastle rates assistance guidelines which is reviewed each year to meet the changing needs of the community.

Applications for any form of assistance must be made each year as circumstances can change making a ratepayer ineligible to receive further assistance.

Application forms are available by calling the Rates Information Hotline on 02 4974 2312.

The types of assistance available include:

• Extended pay period
• Deferral against estate
• Writing off accrued interest
• Vouchers distributed by welfare agencies
• Financial planning advice via welfare agencies
• New valuations.

NB: The main criteria to determine if rate assistance is available is whether the rates payable are more than 5% of the gross household income and the extent of income producing assets.

Valuations

Council calculates rates using the most recent valuations supplied by the NSW Land and Property Information Office. New valuations are issued every three to four years.

Council has the discretion to waive or defer all or part of any outstanding rates in circumstances where a ratepayer incurs genuine financial difficulties as a result of new valuations. This type of assistance is only available in the first year that new valuations are used to calculate rates.
A formal application is required to assess if assistance can be offered.

Welfare agency support

Council has negotiated with local welfare agencies to offer support to ratepayers who are experiencing considerable difficulty paying their rates.

Council has extended the rate relief options to include a restricted number of vouchers to make part payments of rates and charges. The scheme includes financial planning advice and will be administered by the agencies.

For further details on the type of assistance available call the agencies on:

• The Samaritans 02 4960 7100
• Newcastle Legacy 02 4968 9501
• St Vincent De Paul Society 02 4961 1476
• Salvation Army 02 4929 2300

For further information call the Rates Information Hotline on 02 4974 2312.