Anglicare report finds thousands of Australians getting trapped by bills

ABC NEWS (Australia)

As the winter cold bites, a new report by the charity Anglicare is warning that hundreds of thousands of people are in debt due to their energy bills. It's found a full-time minimum wage worker has just 33 dollars left after paying for rent, food and transport. Deputy Director of Anglicare Maiy Azize says energy companies need to stop price gouging while making record profits.

Transcript

00:00This cost of living index comes out every single year, every year around this time.

00:06And this year we found that a person on the minimum wage has got just $33 left after they

00:10pay for essentials, weekly essentials, like rent, groceries and transport.

00:16And if you're a single parent, it's just $1 left.

00:19If you're a family of four raising two kids and you've got two parents who are working

00:23full time, you've got just $5 left.

00:25So we took a look at this and figures have recently came out that showed that 330,000

00:32Australians have got energy debts and that number is going up.

00:36The number of people with debts over $3,000 is going up.

00:39And we took a look at these two numbers and said, well, I guess that's what happens when

00:43nobody's got any money left for their quarterly bills and other expenses.

00:46So people are asked to contact energy providers if they are having trouble paying their bill.

00:52Is that helpful?

00:53Does that work?

00:54Well, that's where these numbers come from.

00:56The Australian energy regulator reports on how many people have debts with their providers

01:00and are on payment plans.

01:02The problem is that people's bills are exceeding the amounts that they can repay on their payment

01:08plan.

01:09So that means that the debts just keep getting bigger and bigger and people have got no way

01:12out of them.

01:13At a time when energy retailers are making record profits and when it's actually getting cheaper

01:17for them to distribute electricity because of renewable energy, we think that there should be some

01:22regulations so that this price gouging ends.

01:25But we're also calling for some forgiveness for these energy debts so that people can make

01:28a fresh start.

01:29So you want the energy companies to write off the amount that they're owed from people?

01:37You know, interestingly, in their annual reports, they actually say they don't expect a lot

01:41of these debts to ever be fully paid off.

01:43We'd love to see them write them off.

01:46And we'd also love to see some support from the government.

01:48What they've done in the past couple of years is actually, for political reasons, I guess,

01:53give energy relief to a whole lot of people who don't want, need it or even notice it.

01:57And that money would be better spent on people who need it the most.

02:00Are people getting cut off because they can't pay their energy bills, May?

02:05If you're really, really behind on your payment plan and you're really not able to make those

02:10repayments, you can get cut off.

02:12But what we're seeing is that people are just sort of at the moment trapped with these huge

02:17debts.

02:18They're just sort of scraping by, making minimum repayments while their debts grow.

02:22Certainly more people could be cut off in the future.

02:24Okay.

02:25All households, though, have already received $300 in energy relief, another $150 is due

02:31next month.

02:32That must help, mustn't it?

02:35It does help.

02:36The problem is that it seems to just have the effect of prompting the retailers to increase

02:40what they're charging, which is a huge problem and why we need to see the government step up

02:44and do a bit more regulation.

02:46So you are calling for energy debts relief.

02:48Who would qualify for that?

02:50Would it be people whose debts are over a certain level?

02:53Yeah, people who have debts over $3,000 and also that group of people whose energy bills

03:00are higher than what their repayments are on their plans because that's just going to

03:05lead them into a debt spiral.

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