Common use of Payment Assistance Clause in Contracts

Payment Assistance. In accordance with our obligations under the Code of Conduct, if you are a residential customer and having payment problems or difficulty paying your bill, we will make available to you either additional time to pay your bill (which amount of time we will determine) or a payment plan for the amount owing in your bill. However, we are not required to make either of these options available to you if, in the previous 12 months: (a) you have been granted additional time to pay or a payment plan; and (b) you have failed to pay two or more bills within the additional time provided or you have had two or more payment plans cancelled for non-payment. 6.3 If you are in financial hardship (a) If you are having trouble paying your bills, please advise us. We will assess your request within five business days of your request. (b) If you are a residential customer and we assess that you are experiencing financial hardship, we will: (i) offer you a payment plan option; (ii) offer you additional time to pay; (iii) give reasonable consideration to your request for a reduction of your debt (including in accordance with our family violence policy, if applicable); (iv) advise you of: (A) your right to have your bill redirected to a different address (including an email address) at no charge; and (B) payment methods available to you; and (C) concessions and other financial assistance offered by us that may be available to you and how to access that assistance; and (D) alternative tariffs that might be available to you; and (E) independent financial counselling services and other relevant consumer representative organisations available to you. (c) If you are a business customer and you are experiencing payment problems, we will consider any reasonable request for alternative payment arrangements. (d) If you owe us money, you may request that we transfer the debt to another customer and we may transfer the debt to that person provided we first obtain that person’s verifiable consent in accordance with the Code of Conduct.