Young WA families left worrying about cost of living with lack of State Government power bill credits

Families of young children have been given little to cheer about in the State Budget, with some disappointed over a lack of cost of living relief.

The widely expected discontinuation of the State Government’s power bill credit — which saved the average family $400 in 2024 —was confirmed as the papers were released.

The move is expected to increase the cost of living for many, including young families.

Stephanie Khoo-Reyes lives with her husband Mendel Khoo-Reyes and son Ollie, 2, in a unit in Success.

Ms Khoo-Reyes, 32, works as a casual admin assistant while Mr Khoo-Reyes, 35, works as a government worker.

They’ve lived in the unit for seven years and despite plans to start a family and upsize, Ms Khoo-Reyes says the couple feel like its unlikely they’ll be able to move into the home they once envisioned.

“My husband bought that (unit) about seven years ago, and then after that, I moved in two years into the relationship,” she said.

“We thought ‘yep we’re just gonna live here for a little bit and then get married, buy our family home and have more space to have a family’, because it’s just a little unit.

“But because of the cost of living, that never happened, we can’t really afford to move to a bigger place.”

She said the power bill rebates they received last year helped a great deal.

“Our last power bill rebate that we got lasted almost six months because we are in a small house, so that six months of power being paid is really helpful,” she said.

“What I feel, and many of our millennial friends feel, that we’re all around the same age, 35 and under, and a lot of us are looking to only have the one child because of these costs.”

But upon the confirmation the power bill rebate would not be making a return, Ms Khoo-Reyes said she was disappointed.

“That’s definitely a shame, because like I mentioned, the last one (power bill credit) helped us out for almost six months,” she said.

“It’s just one of the things that’s adding pressures to young families, isn’t it?”

Aside from the power bill credit, the State Government talked up its battery rebate program.

Ms Khoo-Reyes said the scheme may make them have another look at getting solar panels.

“We actually have looked into that, but the initial outlay for solar panels was really expensive, it’s just a discount on a little bit of the system, not like the whole system,” he said.

“Maybe we might look into it again because we looked at it with before the rebate, so we’ll see the numbers after.”

To make matters more complicated for the family, their son Ollie was diagnosed with epilepsy when he was 18 months old.

Ms Khoo-Reyes said she could see first-hand the pressure the healthcare system was under.

“Another thing for us is medical costs as well, because my son was diagnosed with epilepsy, because the wait list is so long for public we did see a private specialist and the first consult was almost $600,” she said.

“He does one day a week at family daycare, and that’s all he can go to right now until we can get his epilepsy under control,” she said.

“He’s been there since he was 18 months, and we’ve already had one price increase in a year.”

Ms Khoo-Reyes said because of Ollie’s health situation, she still wanted to see more help for the health sector.

“We also have a medically complicated child, so I did see that they’re capping the medications at $25 which is great,” she said.

“But the main challenge was the GP costs and the specialist.”