QLD Home Energy Emergency Assistance Scheme (HEEAS) - up to $720 per 2 years

What Is This Payment?

HEEAS - the Home Energy Emergency Assistance Scheme - is a Queensland Government emergency credit administered through licensed energy retailers. It exists because the ongoing Electricity Rebate and Gas Rebate are designed for steady-state low income (you hold a Pensioner Concession Card or Health Care Card and need a small annual offset), while HEEAS is designed for the moment a household's circumstances suddenly change and a power or gas bill becomes unmanageable.

The scheme has three structural features that distinguish it from every other QLD energy concession. First, no concession card is required - eligibility runs on hardship and income at the moment of application, not on a card type. Second, the crisis must be recent and unexpected - HEEAS funds an event from the last 12 months, not a chronic budget shortfall. Third, the money never touches the customer; it is paid by Queensland to the retailer, who applies it as a credit line on the customer's NMI (electricity meter) or MIRN (gas meter) account.

Practically, that means HEEAS is the right answer for someone who lost their job four months ago and now has a $480 electricity arrears, but it is the wrong answer for someone who has been on the same low pension for a decade and simply finds their winter bills tight - that second person needs the Electricity Rebate, not HEEAS.

The retailer is the gatekeeper. They take the application, verify hardship and income, request HEEAS funding from the Queensland Government, and once approved post the credit to the meter account. Most retailers pair HEEAS with their own internal hardship payment plan so the residual balance (anything beyond $720) can be paid down without disconnection.

How Much Can You Get?

The maximum is $720 per household across any rolling 24-month window. Within that cap the actual credit depends on the size of the arrears at the time of approval:

• Arrears below $720: the retailer typically funds the full overdue amount. Example - a $480 overdue electricity balance is cleared with a $480 HEEAS credit, and the remaining $240 of cap stays unused for that 24-month window.
• Arrears above $720: the retailer applies the full $720 cap and the customer must clear the residual through a hardship payment plan, Centrelink advance, charity bill voucher, or normal repayment. Example - a $920 combined electricity + gas overdue receives the $720 cap, leaving $200 to manage separately.
• Split across electricity and gas: the cap is shared. A household can use $400 toward an electricity overdue and $320 toward a gas overdue if both bills are overdue at the same time, but the combined ceiling is still $720.
• Form of payment: always a credit on the meter account, never a bank transfer. The credit shows on the next bill cycle as a negative line item.

The 24-month reset is calculated from the date HEEAS was last approved, not from the financial year. If a household was approved on 14 March 2025, the next eligibility window opens on 14 March 2027.

HEEAS is fully stackable with the ongoing Queensland concessions. A Pensioner Concession Card holder can simultaneously be receiving the Electricity Rebate ($386.34/yr), the Reticulated Natural Gas Rebate ($92.12/yr), and a HEEAS credit - because each addresses a different problem (long-term offset vs. short-term crisis).

Eligibility Conditions

The eligibility block is an all set - every gate must pass for the retailer to submit a HEEAS application.

1. state = QLD: the energy account must be at a Queensland service address, supplied by a Queensland-licensed retailer or distributor. NSW or NT meters are not eligible even if the bill payer holds a Queensland driver licence.
2. low_income_household = true: the household income at application time must be at or below the retailer's hardship threshold. Holding a Pensioner Concession Card or Health Care Card is sufficient evidence; without a card, the retailer assesses payslips, Centrelink statements, or sworn income declarations.
3. in_short_term_financial_crisis = true: this is the heart of HEEAS. The household must have experienced an unexpected event within the last 12 months that materially worsened its capacity to pay - job loss or hour reduction, serious or chronic illness, family violence and separation, the death of a partner or close family member, a major unexpected expense (medical, legal, funeral), or a natural disaster impact. Long-standing financial difficulty without a specific event does not satisfy this gate.
4. overdue_electricity_or_gas_bill = true: the bill must already be past its due date and the retailer must have issued a reminder or disconnection notice. HEEAS cannot be claimed pre-emptively - the trigger is an unpaid arrears balance, not an upcoming bill the customer fears they will miss.

Required fields: state, low_income_household, in_short_term_financial_crisis, overdue_electricity_or_gas_bill. The source excludes.any block is empty - HEEAS does not exclude households on the basis of receiving other concessions, owning a home, or being on a payment plan.

How To Apply

HEEAS is a retailer-led scheme. The customer never applies directly to the Queensland Government - the retailer collects the case, assesses it, and forwards funding requests on the customer's behalf.

1. Call the retailer's hardship team. Every Queensland-licensed retailer has a dedicated hardship line (often a different number from the general billing line). Ask explicitly for "Home Energy Emergency Assistance Scheme" so the call is routed to the right team. If you are unsure who your retailer is, the bill itself names them.
2. Explain the crisis event. Be specific about what happened, when it happened (month and year), and how it has affected income or expenses. Vague descriptions like "things are tight" tend to get rerouted to a generic payment plan rather than HEEAS.
3. Provide evidence. The required documents are an overdue bill (the retailer already has this), a government-issued ID (driver licence, Medicare card with photo, passport), and hardship evidence dated within the last 12 months - hospital discharge letter, separation paperwork, Centrelink unemployment notification, death certificate, tenancy termination, or a referral letter from a financial counsellor.
4. Wait for assessment. Retailers typically assess HEEAS within 5-15 business days. During the assessment period the retailer must place a hold on disconnection - if you have received a disconnection notice, mention this when you call so the hold is recorded.
5. Confirm the credit on the next bill. Once approved, the credit posts to the meter account and appears on the next billing cycle. If the credit does not appear within 30 days of the approval letter, contact the retailer with the HEEAS reference number.

If the retailer declines on grounds you disagree with, you can request internal review or contact the Energy and Water Ombudsman Queensland (EWOQ) on 1800 662 837. EWOQ handles HEEAS disputes free of charge.

Read the official Queensland Government HEEAS guidance

Real-World Scenarios

Scenario 1: Job loss with $480 electricity arrears

Tindall is 28 and lives in Logan. He was made redundant from a warehouse job four months ago and has been on JobSeeker while looking for work. His Origin electricity account is now $480 overdue and Origin has issued a reminder notice. He calls Origin's hardship line, explains the redundancy (separation certificate from his former employer + Centrelink JobSeeker statement as evidence), and Origin lodges a HEEAS request. Approval comes through in eight business days for the full $480, applied as a credit on his next bill. The remaining $240 of the $720 cap stays unused for the next 24 months. Origin also sets up a fortnightly $40 payment plan to keep the account current going forward.

Scenario 2: Serious illness with combined electricity + gas overdue $920

Greta is 56 and lives in Bundaberg. In late February she had emergency cardiac surgery and could not work for eight weeks. Combined arrears across her AGL electricity and AGL gas accounts now total $920. AGL accepts her hospital discharge letter and surgeon's medical certificate as crisis evidence and confirms she is in low-income territory because her partner is on Carer Payment. AGL applies the full $720 cap - $480 to electricity, $240 to gas - and the residual $200 enters AGL's internal hardship plan at $30 per fortnight. Because $720 was used in full, Greta is locked out of HEEAS until the same dates two years later.

Scenario 3: Family violence relocation but no overdue bill yet

Hema is 31 and recently moved to a new flat in Cairns after leaving a family-violence relationship. The old account was in her former partner's name; the new EnergyAustralia account is just one month old and is still inside its first billing cycle - no bill is overdue yet, so overdue_electricity_or_gas_bill = false. Despite a clear crisis, HEEAS cannot fire. The EnergyAustralia hardship officer suggests she contact The Salvation Army for emergency utility vouchers immediately and call back if any future bill goes overdue, at which point a HEEAS application would succeed.

Scenario 4: Long-term low income with no specific event

Jules is 67 and lives in Toowoomba. He is a Pensioner Concession Card holder on the full Age Pension, has always had tight finances, and is finding the winter electricity bill harder than usual. He calls Ergon Energy and asks about HEEAS. The hardship officer explains that in_short_term_financial_crisis = false for his case - chronic low pension income is not a recent unexpected event - so HEEAS does not apply. Jules is instead steered toward the Electricity Rebate ($386.34/yr, automatically credited because he holds the PCC), the federal Cost of Living Bill Relief one-off, and Ergon's flexible payment options. The right concession exists; it is just not HEEAS.

Scenario 5: Repeat application inside 24-month window

Kavi is 42 and lives in Ipswich. He received a $580 HEEAS credit eleven months ago after an injury kept him off work. Now his wife has had a stroke and he is again under serious financial pressure. When he calls Alinta, the hardship officer confirms he is inside the 24-month rolling window since the last HEEAS approval and cannot be funded again until that window closes. Alinta instead activates its own internal hardship fund (smaller but available immediately), refers him to Salvos Bill Buster vouchers, and books a financial counselling appointment for him. They flag the file so a fresh HEEAS request can be lodged on the day the 24-month period expires.

Common Mistakes

• Treating long-term low income as the trigger. The decisive field is in_short_term_financial_crisis = true - HEEAS funds an unexpected event in the last 12 months. Steady-state hardship without a specific event belongs to the Electricity Rebate, the Gas Rebate, or Cost of Living Bill Relief, not HEEAS.
• Assuming a Pensioner Concession Card automatically unlocks HEEAS. HEEAS does not require a concession card. The card only helps prove low_income_household = true; it does nothing for the crisis gate. Equally, not having a card does not exclude an applicant - hardship and income are assessed independently.
• Expecting a cash payment. HEEAS is always a credit applied to the meter account. The Queensland Government pays the retailer, not the customer. You also cannot pay the bill yourself first and then claim reimbursement - the bill must be overdue at application time.
• Trying to claim before the bill is overdue. The gate overdue_electricity_or_gas_bill = true is hard. A bill that is approaching its due date but not yet missed cannot trigger HEEAS. The retailer needs to have issued a reminder or disconnection notice for the application to be valid.
• Misreading the 24-month cap as a financial year reset. The cap is rolling - 24 months from the date of last approval, not 1 July to 30 June. Two HEEAS applications inside the same calendar year are possible only if the first was less than $720 and you stay within cap; once $720 is used, the next window opens 24 months from approval date.
• Believing electricity and gas each get $720. The $720 ceiling is one combined household cap across both fuels. A household with both electricity and gas overdue can split the cap between the two bills, but the total never exceeds $720 in one 24-month window.

Related Benefits

• QLD Electricity Rebate - the steady-state, card-based concession for long-term low income ($386.34/yr automatically credited to PCC/HCC/DVA holders). HEEAS sits above it as the short-term crisis layer; the two are explicitly designed to coexist.
• QLD Reticulated Natural Gas Rebate - the long-term gas equivalent ($92.12/yr) for PCC holders connected to mains gas. HEEAS can also fund overdue gas arrears, so the two form the same long-term-vs-emergency pair as the Electricity Rebate.
• QLD Medical Cooling and Heating Electricity Concession - additional electricity concession ($522.09/yr) for households with a temperature-sensitive medical condition. Stackable with HEEAS but requires medical certification rather than hardship evidence.
• QLD Cost of Living Bill Relief - the federal $150 EBRF pass-through, applied universally with no crisis trigger. HEEAS handles emergencies that the universal $150 cannot cover.
• Federal JobSeeker Payment - the income-replacement payment for working-age unemployment. Job loss is the most common HEEAS scenario 1 trigger, so HEEAS and JobSeeker frequently apply at the same time.
• Federal Crisis Payment - a one-off Centrelink payment equal to one week of base income support for major life events. HEEAS and Crisis Payment commonly run in parallel - one credits the energy account, the other delivers cash to the bank account.

Frequently Asked Questions