Western Australia's economic watchdog has found state-owned power utility Synergy overcharged thousands of vulnerable customers over more than a decade. The Economic Regulation Authority says the utility continued to take money from customers' Centrelink payments after they had closed their Synergy accounts, something the Opposition and social service providers have labelled "concerning".
00:00It might be WA's largest electricity generator, but government-owned Synergy has slipped up in its customer billing.
00:10The Economic Regulation Authority finding vulnerable customers have been overcharged after using Centipay for their power bills.
00:17The utility taking from customers' Centrelink payments after they'd closed their Synergy accounts and were no longer receiving electricity, with some owed more than $500.
00:27The breaches dating back to 2009 and totalling over $2.2 million.
00:35Synergy's promised to reimburse all impacted customers with small additional payments to compensate for the inconvenience and time it's held money for.
00:44But social services say given who was impacted, it's not good enough.
00:49These are the people on the lowest incomes. These are people who are on income support.
00:53So they will be your pensioners, your single parents, people who are unemployed, those people who could not in any way, shape or form afford to be overcharged.
01:02Well, Synergy needs to reassure the entire community that this is now fixed.
01:07I mean, it took a vulnerable group of people and made their situation worse.
01:11And that can never be allowed to happen again.
01:13Energy Minister Amber Jade Sanderson wasn't available for an interview, but said in a statement she's instigated an independent review of all systems and processes relating to customer billing, in addition to Synergy's own review.
01:29The watchdog says the utility has been contacting affected customers since April, with around 30% of the money owed paid back so far.
