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Electricity retailers have agreed to beef up the training of their call centre staff and whoever handles their disconnections so that new guidelines for dealing with vulnerable and low-income customers will be successful.
The Electricity Commission yesterday released guidelines for how power companies should deal with struggling customers in the wake of the death of Auckland mother Folole Muliaga.
The updated guidelines signal a new era of regular communication between company and customer, including a requirement that consumers are informed at least once a year of the different payment options they have.
Power companies will also be required to offer consumers who are having difficulty paying their bills a range of alternatives to standard monthly payments, with prepayment meters, smoothed payments and redirection of income all named as potential options.
While the new guidelines remain voluntary, the commission has received written assurance from all power company chief executives that they will implement them.
The companies will have to report on their compliance with the guidelines annually to the commission and that information will be made public.
Should the voluntary guidelines be ignored, the commission may recommend that the Government regulate the electricity sector.
Electricity Commissioner David Close said yesterday there were clearly cases where the previous guidelines had not been working as well as they should have.
The commission had always interpreted part of the wording as meaning that if a person made partial payments that would stave off disconnection.
The Muliaga family had been making small payments to Mercury Energy but still had its electricity disconnected because an amount remained outstanding.
Fresh audio tapes released over the weekend showed that a plea for help from Mrs Muliaga's husband to Mercury Energy met deaf ears as the company's call centre advised him it could not enter into talks about striking a deal on the payments.
Mr Close said the "tragic" Muliaga case threw up evidence demonstrating that the guidelines were not being followed as diligently as the commission had hoped.
"It has been a wake-up call for the commission and for the power companies," he said.
While some companies were already dealing with struggling customers well, others were not and they had agreed to give staff and contractors training on the new guidelines.
Prime Minister Helen Clark greeted the guidelines with another attack on Mercury Energy, prompted by the audio tapes of Mr Muliaga's conversation with the company.
She said the tapes "confirmed my worst fears about the heartless way in which the Muliagas had been treated".
It was "simply unbelievable" a call centre person later told a supporter of the Muliaga family the fact Mrs Muliaga had died was irrelevant to whether the power could be reconnected.
Mercury Energy emphasised that it had put new procedures in place to avoid a repeat of the Muliaga case.
This includes call centre staff now being instructed to seek more detail of medical or hardship situations regardless of whether a caller was the account holder.
Disconnections
* Electricity companies will have to take extra measures with low-income and vulnerable consumers before cutting off their power.
* A low-income consumer has genuine difficulty paying the power bills because of his or her income situation, whether temporary or permanent.
* A consumer is vulnerable if for reasons of age, health or disability, disconnection presents a clear threat to his or her health or wellbeing or that of a member of the household.
* DHB will inform retailers when somebody has critical medical support at home, and that person's power cannot be disconnected.
* Customers who say they are vulnerable or low-income must be prepared to show some evidence to support their claim.
* Retailers must make reasonable efforts to contact a customer before a disconnection, including at least one call outside normal working hours, or using text messages.
* Retailers must make one visit to the house before power is cut off.
* The person cutting the power off has responsibility to find out if the customer is vulnerable.
To see the full guidelines, go to: www.electricitycommission.govt.nz
