Jackgreen’s Hardship Policy

Our Customer Values

Jackgreen recognises that any customer may experience times of genuine hardship. A customer can experience genuine financial hardship when they tend to pay, but are unable to, because of circumstances beyond their control. This can be due to a number of things, such as a large number of bills arriving at the same time, unemployment, serious illness or death in the family, disability, separation or family problems, or other personal reasons.

Jackgreen believes that a customer in these circumstances should not be subject to the additional burden and stress of being threatened with disconnection and collection action.

Your duty to contact us

Please contact Jackgreen if you anticipate that you may not be able to pay any payment amount by the due date. If you are experiencing genuine hardship, the sooner you contact Jackgreen the sooner we can help you with your electricity bills.

All customers who are experiencing genuine hardship are entitled to be treated with respect and have their circumstances kept confidential. Jackgreen recognise that customers in genuine hardship circumstances may be worried, stressed and embarrassed by their situation. We recognise that there is a difference between customers who won’t pay and those that can’t pay.

We have internal assessment processes that enable us to identify customers in genuine hardship circumstances.

Payment Options

A customer experiencing hardship can be asked to enter into a payment arrangement plan. In this instance a customer will be asked to nominate an amount they can reasonably afford to pay on a regular basis. The payment arrangement plan will take into consideration the customer’s financial situation and what the customer can afford to pay. Customers who are placed on a payment arrangement plan must renegotiate the amount of their arrangement if there is a change in their circumstances.

A customer who is experiencing genuine financial hardship will not have his or her electricity supply disconnected, and will not face recovery action, as long as the customer continues to make payments according to the agreed payment arrangement. However, Jackgreen’s Hardship Policy will cease to apply when a customer fails to meet their agreed payment arrangements and the customer does not contact Jackgreen to review their payment options.

Information and referral to local community support services will be offered to all Jackgreen customers in genuine financial hardship. Where Jackgreen staff thinks it would be helpful, Jackgreen will provide energy efficiency advice to help customers manage their energy usage.

Customers will be requested to apply for any Government benefits and concessions that are available to them. Jackgreen customers will also be asked to use the Centrepay facility if it is available to them.

Staff training

Jackgreen customer service staff are adequately trained to deal sensitively with customers in genuine financial hardship and are well informed about Government funded concession schemes.

Jackgreen staff will receive ongoing training from external bodies on a range of social and community issues. This training will specifically relate to issues that low income and vulnerable customers face.

Last Updated 11/17/2006.