Social Services back electricity billing changes

The Council, which includes Catholic Social Services as a foundation member, made several recommendations in response to an Electricity Authority survey on improving electricity billing.

Among the proposals was having “better plans to support residential consumers to understand if they are on their retailer’s cheapest plan for them, and switch risk-free if they are not”. 

Social Services expressed strong support for “the plan review proposal, with consumers regularly prompted to move to a more suitable plan or to trial a more suitable plan. We support the proposed timeframes with plans reviewed every six months and time-of-use trials of three months”.   

“We believe this has the potential to provide substantial benefit to low-income households and particularly older people who are less engaged with the Internet,” the Council’s response said.

Support was also expressed for “the removal of termination fees when switching between plans with the same retailer. We encourage consideration of the removal of penalties for switching retailers”.

NZCCSS also backed compulsory minimum billing standards.  

“We support the proposed tiered layout of bills, with critical information (tier one) presented first, followed by important information (tier two). Proposed tier one information included the amount due, due date, key retailer, customer details, emergency information and switching prompts, while tier two information included more details of the plan, consumption and support information.”

The submission noted that while the average billing period is 30 days, some retailers’ billing periods vary drastically.

The Council suggested a “set billing period such as four weeks for all bills, with yearly comparisons using the same four-week period. However, we understand that for consumers without smart meters this may be hard to implement so suggest the inclusion of a basic comparator like average daily electricity cost in each bill to help provide clarity for consumers.”

The submission also called for consistency in how power pricing is advertised and presented in bills, especially concerning GST.

FULL STORY

Improving Electricity Billing in New Zealand – survey response (New Zealand Council of Christian Social Services)