Green Loans Program
| Important notice - program changes - 8 July 2010 |
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On 8 July 2010, the Minister for the Climate Change and Energy Efficiency announced changes to the Green Loans Program. The Green Loans program will be phased out in the coming months and will transition to a new Green Start grants based program, delivered in two rounds. |
Notice to people who have submitted contracts to become assessors and have not been contracted to the department
Around 4,400 assessors are currently contracted to work under the Green Loans Program.
There are a number of reviews currently underway regarding the Program, including reviews of accreditation processes and the contractual arrangements and procurement under the Program.
The Government will consider the findings of these reviews before proceeding to finalise additional assessor contracts.
New applications to become contracted assessors are no longer being received by the department. Please do not send any applications to the department.
If you have already submitted a contract, unless you have received a starter pack from the department, or other written confirmation, you should consider that any contract you sent to the department has not yet been signed. You are not able to carry out work under the program unless your contract has been signed.
Notice to assessors
The Program changes announced on 19 February 2010 will assist in improving the quality of assessments being conducted and in ensuring a more even spread of assessments between assessors.
More detail about the program changes can be found in the Assessor section of this website.
Changes announced on 19 February 2010:
- An additional 600,000 free assessments, on top of the 360,000 free home sustainability assessments already committed under the Program.
- A limit has been placed on the number of assessments that can be completed by each assessor in any one day. Each assessor can carry out no more than three assessments per day. The purpose of this change is to improve the quality of home sustainability assessments.
- A limit has been placed on the number of assessments that can be completed by each assessor each week. Each assessor can carry out no more than five assessments per week. Across all assessors, no more than 15,000 assessments in total can be carried out each week. This change aims to more evenly distribute work between assessors and provide longer term certainty about the duration of the Program.
- No more than 5,000 assessors will be contracted to work under the Program.
- Each call to the booking centre can only be made by or on behalf of an individual assessor.
- Bookings cannot be transferred or on-sold between assessors. When an assessor or their representative rings the Booking Centre to make a booking they have to state their HO number and this number will be checked against their invoice. Invoices will not be paid if the HO number on the invoice does not match the HO number booked for the assessment.
These changes apply to all contracted assessors, including all assessor companies.
- New 'Program Guidelines' and 'Assessor Contract Terms and Conditions' will be introduced soon to reflect the Program changes and ensure the quality of assessments being delivered under the Program. Assessors will be given notification of these changes and may be asked to agree to the changes before continuing in the Program. In the interim, the current Program Guidelines and Assessor Contract Terms and Conditions apply subject to the changes announced on 19 February 2010 and any changes to Terms and Conditions notified directly to assessors.
Booking centre
- To make an assessment booking, please phone the Green Loans Booking Centre on phone number 1800 895 076 from 9.00 am to 5.00 pm Monday to Friday AEST. Bookings can be made directly by a householder or by an assessor on behalf of a householder who has sought to have a home sustainability assessment completed for their property.
- Where the booking is made by an assessor, each call to the booking centre can only be made by or on behalf of an individual assessor. The 15,000 bookings per week available under the Program will be spread over Monday to Friday, with 3,000 each day. Assessments can be undertaken on any day of the week.
- When an assessor or their representative phones to make a booking, they will need to supply the assessor's HO number. They will be allowed to make up to 10 bookings in one phone call, up to two weeks in advance (ie the 10 bookings can be spread over the next two weeks, but no more than five bookings can be made for each week). This means assessors will only need to make one phone call per fortnight to make their bookings.
Booking Centre - call wait times
- Average wait time on the assessor line for the Green Loans Booking Centre for April 2010 was around 30 seconds.
Invoicing for work completed under the Program - Assessors
- When a correctly completed invoice is received, the Department will process it.
- If an incorrect invoice is received the assessor will be contacted by the Department and advised about how to amend it. The invoice will then need to be resubmitted. Please note that the 30 day payment period does not begin until a correctly completed invoice is received.
- In order to help the Department pay you promptly please double check the information you are providing, in particular your ABN, company details, AN numbers and ensuring you are only claiming GST if you are registered to collect GST. If you are invoicing for travel fees, please ensure they are charged on the basis of the distance between the household being assessed and the post office nearest to that household, as stipulated in the Green Loans Program Schedule of Fees. Travel fees are not payable based on the distance between the assessor’s home and the household being assessed.
- The Department endeavours to pay correctly rendered invoices within 30 days of receipt. Unfortunately delays have been experienced recently with regard to payments for assessor services under the Green Loans Program.
- The Department's payment processing times for Green Loans Program invoices are shown on the top right hand side of this page.
General Enquiries - Green Loans Program
- The Department has established a new telephone line to handle general enquiries about the Program. The phone number for the enquiries line is 1300 778 451. If one of the households you're working with or members of the community wish to find out more about the Program, please phone this number. Operating hours for this enquiry line are 8.00 am to 6.00 pm Monday to Friday AEST.
- If you wish to submit an invoice or follow up on the status of a payment please email glinvoicing@environment.gov.au. Please note that non-invoicing enquiries sent to this email box will not be responded to. Alternatively, for all enquiries about the Program, please use our online enquiries form.