Domestic violence victims need more help with energy bills: HelpPay
Australian debt prevention fintech calls for further steps to stamp our debt traps as submissions close on energy industry’s family violence rule changes.
Press Release Dated: 7 March 2022
HelpPay, a new social fintech that takes the stigma out of asking for help, is urging the Australian energy industry to take further steps to stop victims of domestic violence falling into debt traps.
Australia’s energy sector is poised to take a giant step forward in the way it deals with victims of domestic violence. The Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) has been considering a proposed rule change Protecting Customers Affected by Family Violence, submitted by Red Energy and Lumo Energy. Submissions on the rule change close today.
The AEMC also hosted a forum with industry representatives in February. HelpPay attended along with industry peers Red Energy, Westpac, Alinta, 1st Energy, Aurora Energy, Economic Abuse Reference Group and Women's Legal Services Victoria.
HelpPay is an Australian fintech that turns every bill into a shareable link and payment page and uniquely, guarantees financial help given towards a bill only goes to the provider. The 100% Australian owned company's world-first technology takes the stigma out of asking for help and avoids the financial and mental health costs associated with debt collection.
The company agrees that family violence is a major societal problem “which affects a large number of Australians and can occur in any range of circumstances across cultures and communities”. HelpPay is supportive of the rule change in principle and congratulates the AEMC along with the Australian energy industry in general for the work so far.
However, the company does believe there is room for further improvements to prevent victims falling into debt. For instance, HelpPay is concerned that the existing payment support programs for customers affected by family violence continue to allow victims to get into debt and are ineffective at providing a proactive approach to empower consumers to control debt accumulation.
HelpPay would support further research being conducted through multiple avenues including cross industry workshops or direct inquiries by the AEMC or the Australian Energy Regulator to ensure best practice financial support for customers affected by family violence.
Quick facts
In March 2016, the Victorian Royal Commission into Family Violence concluded that essential services play a critical role in people’s lives that can be exploited by perpetrators to inflict economic abuse.
In 2020, the Australian Energy Regulator commissioned the Exploring regulatory approaches to consumer vulnerability report from the Consumer Policy Research Centre. But asked if rising levels of inequality “including the decline of home ownership and the growth of renting, significant increases in household debt,” have exacerbated the problem.
The Red Energy rule change request to the AEMC has four main components; safe, supportive and flexible assistance for personal and financial security; publicly available family violence policies; protecting contact information of family violence victims; and recognising family violence is a potential cause of payment difficulty.
HelpPay Co-Founder and Managing Director Andrew Ellett said, “We’re thrilled to see the Australian Energy Market Commission and the Australian energy industry embrace this cause so strongly. These are some tremendous changes to the way our industry deals with victims of domestic violence, which will go a long way towards lifting the burden. We also feel there’s scope for more work to be done to make sure victims of domestic violence don’t fall into debt. Domestic violence is almost always coupled with financial abuse. From our experience it is clear that debt prevention is more effective than debt collection.”
Media Contact
Alexander Liddington-Cox
E: alex@mediadistillery.com.au
M: 0474 701 469
About HelpPay
HelpPay, a 100% Australian-owned company, is a new social fintech and business platform with patent-pending technology in the payments industry that takes the stigma out of asking for help and the effort of providing help. HelpPay turns every bill into a shareable link and payment page, and, uniquely, guarantees financial help given towards a bill only goes to the provider.
HelpPay has undertaken market research to address the pain points for customers and providers when handling debt. HelpPay takes all the pain points and customers' experiences in the cycle of asking, giving and getting financial help today. HelpPay is also significantly cheaper for providers when managing their accounts receivable and less stressful for customers than traditional methods such as phone calls, sending letters and using debt collection agencies.
