PIAC made a submission to the office of Energy and Climate Change (OECC) to provide case studies and other research findings to their review into Energy Accounts Payment Assistance (EAPA).
PIAC collated case studies from community organisations who provide frontline assistance to people experiencing payment difficulties, and included preliminary findings from research conducted into payment harms (undertaken in partnership with the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN)) and from the Save4Good project undertaken by All Sustainable Futures (ASF).
The case studies and research findings highlighted themes including where EAPA is working well; where debt remains unmanageable despite the application of EAPA; where there is high debt and a person’s circumstances are such that the debt will likely never be paid off; ways the application causes pain points; and issues with payment in $50 increments.
Reducing unfair fines and over-policing from alcohol-free zones