Concessions and fee relief

Concession fees

If you have a Commonwealth Government-issued Health Card card, you’re automatically entitled to a fee reduction (concession rate). 

This Health Care Card is the only card we can accept for concession rate. Provide a colour copy, front and back, of your Health Care Card when you apply.

Fee relief

If you’re experiencing financial hardship, you may be eligible for a fee waiver, fee reduction, or to pay later.

Who is eligible

Anyone (including sole traders) can apply for fee relief on the grounds of financial hardship. 

Financial hardship means that paying any VCAT fee would make you unable to provide for yourself, your family or other dependents, including:

• food
• accommodation
• clothing
• medical treatment
• education
• other basic necessities.

You automatically don’t need to pay any fees if you are:

• represented by:
  • Victoria Legal Aid
  • a community legal centre
  • a provider under the Tenancy Assistance Advocacy program
  • a recognised provider who has deemed you eligible through a means test. 
• in a prison or other public institution – you must provide evidence of your status such as your Criminal Record Number
• under 18 years of age – you must provide a copy of your birth certificate, passport, learner's permit or other proof of age
• a protected person or an affected family member who is the applicant in a residential tenancies case arising from family violence.

You must provide a letter from the organisation that represents you with your application.

Who isn’t eligible

You’re not eligible to apply for fee relief as a: 

• business or company
• non-profit organisation
• government agency
• corporation

You are also not eligible if you make a VCAT application to review a planning decision and it becomes a major case. 

A business or other organisation may ask to pay at a later date, but only in exceptional circumstances.

So we can assess your eligibility, you’ll need to provide detailed information about your income, expenses, assets and liabilities in your application to us.

How to apply

You can apply for fee relief:

• at the same time you complete your online application
• with your paper application by completing a Fee relief form

When you submit your application you don’t pay a fee.

We assess your application based on financial information you provide us. We may waive fees, reduce or postpone the amount you have to pay. We send you a letter that explains our decision.

You only have to apply once and, if approved, the relief applies to any fees payable throughout your case.

If we don’t approve your application, the standard fees apply.

 If you can’t pay the standard fee, you can withdraw your application at no cost.

More than one applicant

If you’re one of several applicants in a case, and you want fee relief, the other applicants must also be eligible for fee relief. 

Each applicant must apply for fee relief separately. If we don’t grant fee relief to any one of the applicants then standard fees apply to everyone.

Ask to pay later

Generally, you pay your application fee when you apply. If you want to pay at a later date (postpone), you need to ask our permission.

We only agree to do this in exceptional circumstances. For example, when your matter is so urgent that the hearing must start before you can organise to pay the fee.

If we grant your application to postpone a fee, you must pay by the date we set in our decision letter sent to you or, if a date isn’t specified, within 30 days of our decision.

Fill out the application to postpone fee payment form.

Disagree with a fee relief decision?

You can’t ask for a review of a fee relief decision made by the Principal Registrar.

If the decision was made by the Principal Registrar's delegate, you can ask for the Principal Registrar to review it. You can do this only on the grounds that it’s legally wrong or the reasons for the decision are inadequate. The decision letter tells you how to ask for a review.

You must apply within 14 days of the decision and provide information about why the decision is legally wrong or the reasons are inadequate. If you provide new information, the person who originally assessed your application reassesses it.