clovaGetting help
Where to Find Help When You Can't Pay an Energy Bill
Start with the retailer named on the bill, ideally before the due date. Ask for its hardship program and a payment plan you can keep up, and ask it to check your concessions. Your state or territory may also have a one-off grant for an overdue bill.
By MarnixPublished Sources
The bill is bigger than you planned for, the due date is close and the money for it isn't there. Maybe shifts dropped off, or a run of hot nights kept the air conditioner going. If a reminder notice has already followed it, the worry only gets louder.
Falling behind on power or gas happens to a lot of people, so there's a well-worn way through it. Almost all of it starts with one phone call.
Talk to the retailer first
Your retailer is the company whose name is on the bill, the one you pay. Calling early leaves the most options open.
If it's a short gap, such as waiting on your next pay, ask for more time to pay, called a payment extension. If it's more than that, ask to join the retailer's hardship program. Retailers in NSW, Queensland, SA, the ACT and, for electricity, Tasmania must have a hardship policy approved by the Australian Energy Regulator under national energy rules. The rules differ in Victoria, WA and the NT, and for gas in Tasmania. If the first person you speak to doesn't know about the program, you can ask for the hardship team or a manager.
Under those national rules, a hardship program gives you a payment plan and help beyond it: checking which concessions apply where you live and a referral to free financial counselling. The retailer can't charge late payment fees while you're on the program, and it can't disconnect you as long as you keep to the plan.
Agree on an amount you can keep paying
A payment plan is worked out with you. The retailer will ask what you can afford each time and how often you'd pay, and it looks at what you owe and how much energy you normally use. That last part matters: the instalment usually covers the power you keep using as well as the debt, so the next bill doesn't land on top of the old one.
Say Nina, who's made up, owes $360 on her electricity, and her power normally costs about $40 a fortnight. After rent and food, she can manage $55 a fortnight.
Nina pays $55 a fortnight: $40 covers the power she keeps using and $15 goes towards the $360 she owes.
You can offer an amount your actual pay covers, even if it sounds small on the phone. A plan you can't keep can be cancelled. If you've had two plans cancelled in a year, ask the hardship team what support is still available; family violence can change the rules. Our guide to money left before payday walks through finding what each pay can spare.
That number is easier to find with your spending in front of you. Clova, our budgeting app, puts each purchase in a category, so what goes on food and transport is a real figure rather than a guess.
Ask what your state or territory offers
Governments help in two different ways. A concession takes money off your energy bills for as long as you're eligible, usually because you hold a concession card such as a Health Care Card. An emergency grant is a one-off payment towards an overdue bill, usually after a crisis like losing work or an unexpected essential cost. It's paid to the retailer, not to you.
- One-off grant towards an overdue bill
- Concession off your bills
- VictoriaUtility Relief Grant, one-off grantUp to $650 per utility; $1,300 with one energy source · every two years
- NSWEnergy Accounts Payment Assistance (EAPA), one-off grantAfter a short-term crisis · apply through Service NSW or a provider
- QueenslandHome Energy Emergency Assistance Scheme, one-off grantUp to $720 once every two years · start with your energy provider
- WAHardship Utility Grant Scheme, one-off grantUp to $640 a year, more in the north · after 90 days on a plan
- SAEnergy bill concession, concessionUp to $291 a year · apply to ConcessionsSA
- ACTElectricity, Gas and Water Rebate, concessionUp to $800 a year · ask your energy provider
- TasmaniaAnnual electricity concession, concessionAbout $1.84 a day off the bill · apply through your retailer
- NTElectricity concession, concessionUp to $1,200 a year · for NT Concession Scheme members
Neither kind is automatic. The retailer can usually start the application or tell you where to apply, and some grants ask for documents such as payslips or receipts. A grant can come in under the maximum, and applying isn't the same as being approved, so count it only once it shows on your account.
Asking for a grant can also hold off disconnection. In Victoria, requesting the Utility Relief Grant form puts a hold on disconnection while the application is considered, which takes about four to six weeks. In NSW, a retailer can't disconnect you once it knows you've booked an EAPA assessment, so tell it when you book.
If the retailer's offer is more than you can pay
Sometimes the first plan offered is too much, or the retailer won't offer one at all. A free financial counsellor on 1800 007 007 can help you work out what's affordable and, if you want, speak to the retailer for you.
If you still can't agree, every state and territory has a free, independent energy ombudsman. You can go to it when you can't agree on what you owe or what you can pay, when the retailer won't give you a plan or its hardship program, or when you've been disconnected and think it was unfair. The Australian Energy Regulator's complaints page links to each one.
When power is one of several bills you're behind on, asking each provider for hardship help works in a similar way.
Keep the plan going
Once the plan is agreed, each instalment is a bill with a date, like rent. Lining those dates up with your paydays means every instalment comes from a pay that has already landed. If one stops being affordable, call the retailer before you miss it and ask to change the plan.
When the plan is steady, the bill itself is worth a look, and saving on electricity as a renter works through the power you use and the plan you pay for it on.
A note from us
A hardship program is there to be used, and asking for it early is part of looking after your money. When the payment plan ends, a savings goal in Clova can keep that fortnightly amount going towards the next big bill.