Our commitment to helping you

Whether it’s a short-term setback or a long-term challenge, we’ll help keep you stay connected. We know people experience different challenges, including financial stress, language barriers, medical needs or sudden life changes, and we offer flexible support to match.

We can help you find the right solution, whether you:

• Rely on electricity for medical equipment
• Are facing financial pressure
• Have limited time, energy or resources
• Need help with English
• Are dealing with unexpected changes

The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) requires all retailers to have a hardship policy with strict rules about how they should respond when you tell them you are experiencing financial difficulty.

Here are some of the requirements:

• Your retailer must provide you with their customer hardship policy if you request it
• Your retailer must allow you to enter a payment plan for any debt you have, or offer to let you pay in advance if you request it
• Your retailer must allow you to use Centrepay
• Your retailer must offer to review your contract, and they must tell you if there is a better contract available. They are not allowed to charge for any change of contract

Your retailer is also required by the AER to have a Family Policy to assist customers affected by family violence.

This helps customers with:

• Not needing to repeat their experience when requesting assistance
• Waiving late payment fees for people affected by family violence who are unable to pay their bills on time
• Using their preferred method of contact
• Not needing to provide supporting documents to prove family violence
• Having resources and support available through their retailer

We never initiate disconnection due to non-payment, however, we may disconnect power at the request of your retailer. It’s is important that you contact them to avoid having your home or business disconnected.

Your electricity supply cannot be disconnected if:

• You have an appointment with a community group about EAPA vouchers, and your energy retailer knows about it
• Someone in the home uses a life support machine that needs electricity, and this has been registered with your retailer
• It’s a Friday, Saturday, Sunday, public holiday or the day before one
• It’s before 8am or after 3pm
• You owe less than $300 and have an arrangement with your energy retailer to pay it
• You’re adhering to a payment plan agreed with your energy retailer
• You’ve raised a formal complaint with EWON about your bill, and EWON or your energy retailer have told you there is a hold on any disconnection

You can contact the Energy and Water Ombudsman NSW (EWON) if you require additional support

We are a proud member of the Knock to stay Connected customer code. This means if your retailer asks us to disconnect you, we will attempt to speak with you in-person before disconnection – If you’re not home, we will leave a written notice and return in a few days to disconnect your power.

We will visit and tell you this is the last opportunity to contact your retailer and avoid your property being disconnected from the network. We will also offer additional support resources at this time to help you stay connected.