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Consumer Action supports the objectives of the Essential Services Commission (ESC’s) proposed reforms to ensure people experiencing payment difficulty are receiving the best price for energy from their retailer.

Our financial counsellors on the Victorian National Debt Helpline (NDH) observe that people experiencing financial hardship, or vulnerability, are  less likely to be actively involved in shopping around for the best offer, despite their need and desire to reduce their energy costs.

There are significant benefits in streamlining the process of best offer switches to ensure that people in payment difficulty aren’t languishing on more expensive legacy offers, and are supported to reduce the accrual of arrears by ensuring they are paying the lowest energy price possible.

However, we argue that experiencing payment difficulty shouldn’t remove someone’s right to choose which offer best suits their usage needs or override their entitlement of explicit informed consent.

We are supportive of an approach that will assist the most consumers and incorporates multiple price relief options for the growing number of consumers experiencing payment difficulty and/or energy hardship.

Automatically switching consumers to the best offer may not meet the full requirements of explicit informed consent, however as outlined in our submission, there are good policy justifications for this. If implemented, it is important customers are given as much notice prior and post switch, to ensure consumers can exercise their rights to opt out.

Read the full submission (PDF).