Australians already grappling with increased mortgage repayments or rent hikes and high consumer prices can expect to pay more on a range of bills in the second half of the year.
Health insurance premiums, phone plans and energy bills for some households are all about to become more costly, and graduates will enter their second month of higher student loan repayments.
There are also changes to superannuation requirements for workers, business owners and certain retirees.
Here’s what you should know.
ENERGY BILLS
Electricity prices will rise again from July 1 for households and small businesses in some parts of Australia.
Wholesale power prices have fallen but remain high, meaning hundreds of thousands of customers on default energy offers face significant price hikes over the coming financial year despite the federal government’s intervention in the energy market.
From July 1, electricity prices for these customers will increase by between 20 and 25 per cent in NSW, South Australia and South East Queensland, by up to 27 per cent in Victoria and by an average of 9.51 per cent in Tasmania.
The default market rate is a benchmark designed to act as a safety net rather than the best price, so people should shop around to see if they can get a better deal with a different energy provider.
The federal government and states and territories will roll out billions of dollars worth of energy bill subsidies of up to $700 per household, depending on where you live.
But these rebates will only be available to people on government payments and eligible small businesses.
HEALTH INSURANCE PREMIUMS
Private health insurance premiums – the regular payment customers make to keep their insurance policies active – are set to increase by an average of 2.9 per cent this year.
The increases technically came into force in April, but many of the major health funds have delayed passing them on.
AIA customers are set to be hit with a 1.69 per cent increase to their premiums on July 1 after Medibank and ahm raised their premiums by 2.96 per cent in June.
HCF and nib have delayed their premium increases until September 1 when the costs will lift by 3.3 per cent and 2.72 per cent respectively.
Bupa costs will increase by 3.39 per cent but six months later than usual.
The premium hikes come as some health insurance companies offer cash back to eligible customers out of the enormous pools of savings the companies pocketed during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Bupa, which has pushed back it premium increase until October 11, last week announced its 1.7 million policyholders would be returned between $38 and $276 by the end of the year.
PHONE BILLS
Telstra customers will soon be paying up to $72 more per year for their mobile phone plan when another price hike kicks in on July 4.
The telco giant revealed in May it would increase the price of its phone packages by $3-6 per month, with the change to affect not only new customers but existing postpaid and mobile data plans.
It follows similar price increases for customers of Australia’s other two major telecommunications companies, Optus and Vodafone.
SUPERANNUATION
Employers will have to pay their employees’ superannuation at a rate of 11 per cent of workers’ salaries from July 1, up half a percentage point from the most recent superannuation guarantee increase in July last year.
Employers will be required by law to pay workers the higher super rate without docking their pay.
Another change kicking in on July 1 is that older Australians will be able to deposit $1.9m — up from $1.7m — into a tax-free retirement phase income stream that people can use as an alternative to withdrawing their super as a lump sum.
But a temporary halving of drawdown rates – introduced by the government during the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic – will come to an end, meaning people who use super as an income stream will be required to take more out of their super accounts each year.
HECS DEBTS
Millions of graduates will enter their second month of having to fork out extra cash to repay their student loans after indexation was applied to Higher Education Loans Program (HELP) debts – commonly known as HECS.
There is no interest charged on HECS debts but indexation is added on June 1 each year to adjust debts according to the consumer price index so they maintain a value in line with the cost of living.
This year, the loans were indexed in line with an inflation rate of 7.1, meaning Australians with student loans face an average increase of more than $1700 a year on their debts under the new rate.