Power Prices
Everyone needs access to electricity to fully participate in life and stay healthy.
Most of us rely on it to stay warm in winter, cook dinner, do our homework and keep the lights on. People on low-incomes in Aotearoa, however, pay a premium to keep their electricity connected. The Electricity Authority Te Mana Hiko, who sets the rules for electricity retailers, is allowing this to continue.
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The Electricity Authority is allowing retailers to charge disconnection fees. When a household is already unable to pay their bills, these fees can be over $200 and they push people further into debt. “These fees kick people when they’re down. Why do we allow that?” – Financial Mentor
Retailers are charging more to prepay customers, who tend to be on the lowest incomes. Roughly 30,000 households use prepay electricity, many because they have bad credit history and now have no other option. Yet prepay is up to 17% more expensive than pay-monthly plans, forcing people to spend days without electricity because they can’t afford to top up.1 Data on these disconnections is not even recorded.
Retailers are allowed to ignore standards for consumer care. The Electricity Authority’s ‘Consumer Care Guidelines’ remain voluntary, despite covering important processes, such as care for people medically dependent on electricity, and protecting households facing disconnection. The Electricity Authority’s own review in 2023 showed that one in three households in New Zealand is buying electricity from a retailer that is not following those Guidelines.2
We are calling on the Electricity Authority to protect people struggling with power prices.
This petition calls on them to make these changes by winter 2024:
1: Ban disconnection and reconnection fees in case of unpaid bills
2: Make prepay no more expensive than a retailer’s cheapest plan, and publish prepay disconnection data.
3: Make the Consumer Care Guidelines mandatory.
People shouldn’t have to put themselves into further debt to have power. Or, as community advocate Debbie Leyland says, to have to choose whether she heats her house on a cold winter’s day or eats a hot meal.
This campaign has come out of six months of conversation between organisations that agree it shouldn’t be a privilege to have power: Common Grace Aotearoa, Anglican Advocacy, the Salvation Army, FinCap, Child Poverty Action Group, Consumer NZ, He Kāinga Oranga Housing and Health Research Group, Citizens Advice Bureau, Toast Electric, Sustainability Trust and United Community Action Network.
Please sign our petition to show there is public support for the Electricity Authority to make these changes.
Thanks for your help to shine a light on these important issues.
Kate and Emma
(for the Everyone Connected team)
Everyoneconnectednz.com | Join us on Facebook
(From left to right) Kate Day, Emma Sturmfels and Debbie Leyland.
Kate, Emma and Debbie met with the Electricity Authority to discuss the following:
Ban disconnection and reconnection fees in case of unpaid bills
2: Make prepay no more expensive than a retailer’s cheapest plan, and publish prepay disconnection data.
3: Make the Consumer Care Guidelines mandatory.
Join the call for better consumer protections
We support this petition calling on the Electricity Authority to step up to support families struggling with electricity prices. We want to see an end to disconnection fees, which hit those who can least afford to pay. We also need fairer prices for prepay, which currently costs more despite most users being on low incomes and without alternatives. No one should pay a premium for being poor. The Electricity Authority can and should intervene. Sign the petition at tinyurl.com/powerpricesnz
We’d love to connect with organisations who’d like to support the campaign, and to people willing to share their stories of prepay prices or disconnection fees. Stories can be anonymous.
Get in touch with me, kate.v.day@gmail.com, or through the Contact Us form.
Thanks for all your support.
Kate Day
(for the Everyone Connected team)
everyoneconnectednz.com | Everyone Connected
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UCAN - United Community Action Network Aotearoa NZ 