How can the energy industry do more to protect victims of family violence?
Media Coverage Dated: 17 March 2022.
In my previous role as Head of Digital for Red Energy, I got a birdseye view of the way the energy industry interacts with people experiencing financial hardship. The industry’s response to Red Energy’s rule change request, Protecting customers affected by family violence – which is under consideration by Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) – has reinforced my belief that the sector’s determination to lighten the load for victims is sincere.
The driving force behind the reforms proposed in this rule change request date back to March 2016, when the Victorian Royal Commission into Family Violence concluded that essential services play a critical role in people’s lives – and can therefore be exploited by perpetrators to inflict economic abuse.
"Essential services play a critical role in people's lives - and can therefore be exploited by perpetrators to inflict economic abuse."
In 2019, Victoria’s Essential Services Commission introduced new protections for energy customers experiencing family violence. These protections included requirements for energy retailers to have a family violence policy and meet minimum standards of conduct – such as better training for frontline staff, improving account security, and debt management practices. But family violence doesn't stop at the Victorian border, so what should be done at a national level to better protect the victims?
In 2020, the Australian Energy Regulator commissioned the Exploring Regulatory Approaches to Consumer Vulnerability report from the Consumer Policy Research Centre. The report concluded that the challenge of providing better support to vulnerable customers was international and cross-industry and that understanding within government and the private sector was improving.
But it also asked if rising levels of inequality – including the decline of home ownership and the growth of renting, as well as significant increases in household debt – have exacerbated the problem. The energy industry can’t cure poverty or stop family violence, but it can lighten the load for those that experience it.
"The energy industry can't cure poverty or stop family violence, but it can lighten the load for those that experience it."
Red Energy’s rule change request has four components: provide consumers affected by family violence with safe, supportive and flexible assistance in managing their personal and financial security; establish a publicly available family violence policy that outlines the support available for affected customers; keep the contact information and personal details of customers affected by family violence secure; and require that energy retailers recognise family violence as a potential cause of payment difficulty.
One additional, critical feature is if a retailer places the safety of a customer affected by family violence in a position that is not compliant with other rules in the National Energy Retail Rules, retailers would not be in breach of their contract. The real aim of this is to prevent situations where customers who have experienced family violence are forced to explain their situation multiple times to the provider. “This has been found to help encourage engagement from consumers and improve support for consumers but also to lessen the trauma by avoiding having to repeatedly go through the experience,” the rule change request says.
The AEMC also wants to hear stakeholder views on the proposal regarding debt collection. This would require that energy retailers consider the impact of recovery action on the affected customer – and whether other persons might be jointly responsible for energy usage – before attempting to recover debt.
Finally, the AEMC is seeking industry’s views on limiting the ability of energy retailers to request customers provide documentary evidence of family violence only in instances where they are facing disconnection. As things stand, that is also allowed during debt management and recovery. The experience in Victoria has been that family violence victims benefit from better access to support from retailers, along with financial and payment assistance support mechanisms. Meanwhile, retailers secure better engagement with their vulnerable customers, which is always better for both parties. There are only a small handful of retailers that have not already made changes for their operations in Victoria – so the costs of expanding these benefits across the country should be relatively small.
I support the rule changes put forward in principle and, together with industry, I commend the AEMC and Red Energy on the work that has been done to this point. The more we can prevent domestic violence victims falling into debt, the sooner they are able to move forward with their lives.
Rowan Wilde is Chief Customer Officer of HelpPay, a debt prevention fintech that makes it easy to get help from support networks – including family, friends, colleagues and welfare agencies. HelpPay participated in the AEMC family violence forum in February. Before moving to HelpPay, Rowan was Red Energy and Lumo Energy’s Head of Digital for six years.
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' experience 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.
