Cable Energy is provided to you by Online Power & Gas Pty Ltd trading as Future X Power. As such, the FXP Hardship Policy also applies to Cable Energy customers. This policy applies to all residential customers living in NSW and QLD who find it hard to pay their energy bills due to hardship. You might experience hardship because of factors like:
This policy explains:
You can ask a support person to contact us, such as a financial counsellor or someone who helps you manage your energy bills. We need your permission to talk to your support person.
We are committed to providing you with equitable access to the benefits and procedures under this policy in circumstances of Hardship and will work to consider your present and future energy needs. Our goal is to always support you with the reasonable ongoing supply of energy needs and to provide assistance during your times of Hardship.
We are committed to offering you with appropriate payment plans that suit your current financial ability and offer all applicable benefits which you can avail during the program. We are also committed to providing our staff with regular refresher training to identify customers who are facing payment difficulties, and ensure that they are treated equally and fairly and are provided with the opportunity to participate in this program.
Residential customers of Future X Power who are experiencing payment difficulties are eligible for entering our Hardship Program. You must meet the following criteria:
If you do not meet the above criteria, you may be ineligible for assistance under this policy. We will immediately contact you and tell you why you are ineligible and your options or other forms of assistance that may be available to you.
We encourage customers who may be experiencing financial hardship to contact us either personally or through a third party, such as a financial counsellor or a community support agency. We understand that customers may not feel comfortable notifying us of their financial situation. We, therefore, employ credit management cycles and account monitoring to identify customers who may be experiencing circumstances of Hardship as quickly as possible. Besides, we have systems in place to identify Hardship customers by observing a customer's history of:
If we believe that non-payment is due to you experiencing payment difficulties, our Hardship Team will contact you as soon as practicable, and provide you with payment plan options available under our Hardship Program.
We have appropriate systems in place to meet the requirements of the Hardship Policy mentioned in:
The Financial assessment is a process to determine how much you can afford to pay towards the cost of your electricity. Our dedicated Hardship Team will work with you to carry out this assessment. This will involve asking you about your income and expenses. As a part of the process, we will check if there are benefits that you might be entitled to but are not getting, and will help you to avail those benefits. Customers can choose to disclose their financial situation over the phone or by emailing the details to our customer service team.
We will tell you about our hardship program if:
We will recommend you to speak to a staff member to help you join our hardship program if you have:
We can also support you to join our hardship program if you tell us:
You may have trouble paying your bills for other reasons. Please contact us so we can discuss your individual situation.
Our staff are specially trained to help you with hardship. They will:
We will let you know if you are accepted into our hardship program within 5 business days from receipt of the application.
If you are accepted into our hardship program, we will:
Our dedicated Hardship Team will review your account every 2 months to ensure:
We can send you a free copy of our hardship policy.
There are different payment options available to hardship customers, including:
When you are in our hardship program, we will offer you flexible payment options that suit your individual situation. To make your payment plan, we will consider:
This will help us figure out a payment plan that is right for you. We will offer a payment plan that suits your situation. This will include payments to cover:
The following options will be offered if you are experiencing short-term financial difficulties in paying your current dues, but customers can start paying the billed amount on time after the payment plan ends:
The following options will be offered to you if you are facing long-term financial hardship:
Once we agree to a payment plan, we will send you information including:
You can choose to use Centrepay if you are eligible. Centrepay is a free service you can use to help pay your bills. Centrepay can automatically take an amount of money from your Centrelink payments to go toward energy bills and expenses. You will have to provide Future X Power CRN number to Centrelink to start using the Centrepay option. For more information, please visit the Centrelink website www.centrelink.gov.au or call on 1800 050 004.
We will check if another energy plan may be better for you. If you agree, we can transfer you to a better energy plan for free.
Depending on the rules in our hardship policy, we may be able to remove some debt, fees or charges you owe.
If you miss a payment, we will contact you to see if you need help. We will contact you by:
Tell us if your situation changes and you can no longer make the payments in your plan. We can then review your payment arrangements.
We may stop helping you if you:
We will only remove you from our Hardship program for reasons set out in this policy (unless requested by you).
If you have had two payment plans cancelled in the last 12 months because you did not follow your plan:
Depending on the state or territory you live in, there are other support programs to help you pay your energy bills. We will tell you about other ways you can get help to pay your energy bill, such as:
If you find out you are eligible for these programs, let us know as soon as possible, so we can help you.
As a Hardship customer, you can access a range of programs and services to help you.
Following are the grant and rebates programs you can access:
For more information visit www.qld.gov.au/community/cost-of-living-support/concessions/energy-concessions
For more information visit www.resourcesandenergy.nsw.gov.au/energy-consumers/financial-assistance/rebates
You can contact the following financial counselling services for further assistance.
When you join our Hardship program, we will talk to you about your energy use and whether you are on the right plan. We will work with you to determine the most appropriate tariff bearing in mind:
If we think there is a better energy plan for you, we will:
We will only talk to you about energy plans we can offer.
Using less energy can save you money. To help you better understand how your household appliances and energy usage affects the bills, we will suggest one of the following:
We offer assistance in facilitating energy field audits if you are experiencing payment difficulties. The Energy Audit is an analysis of a facility, indicating how it can reduce energy consumption and save energy costs. The audit helps to understand energy wastage and to accelerate energy efficiency improvements, which will lead to significant savings.
You must meet the following criteria for an Energy Audit:
As determined by our trained staff, depending on your circumstances, we may contribute to or pay for an energy field audit. This assistance will be determined by our trained staff and depending on the circumstances, it could be free of charge or involve some contribution from you.
If we partially cover the cost of an audit, we will pay the amount agreed with you to the audit partner, who will then provide an invoice for the remaining amount to you. A full detailed report will be provided outlining their audit information and potential opportunities to save energy at their property.
You may also request an energy field audit at your cost and in that case, we will refer you to our chosen audit partner to perform the service. We will also assist in understanding the results of the energy field audits and the potential benefits of conducting them.
Considering your financial situation, our trained staff may decide to offer this option to the customer free of charge. Energy field audits are only available if you are currently on a Hardship payment plan. A free-of-cost energy audit will only be provided if you are facing severe Hardship or having high outstanding debt.
You may experience large swings in your energy usage depending on the appliances that you have in your household. If you are experiencing Hardship, and in appropriate circumstances, as determined by our Customer Care Manager, we will work with you and identify particular appliances that if replaced may reduce the energy consumption and energy costs. At your request, we will nominate a suitable third party to sell or supply you with a particular appliance.
When you join our hardship program, we can give you tips to use less energy. This can be different depending on the state or territory you live in.
If you have joined our hardship program, we will not:
We will only disconnect you as a last resort and will not disconnect if you are actively participating in the Hardship program.
All customers participating in the Hardship program are separated from our normal credit collection process to ensure the power is still connected to the customer.
We will not disconnect your supply unless:
Customers are informed about the existence of the Hardship policy through our Customer Charter, which is issued during the sign-up process along with the Welcome pack, Hardship Welcome letter, Reminder, and Disconnection notices.
Customers can access the latest hardship policy from our website or request a free copy by calling our customer service team on (02) 7908 5746.
Future X Power's dispute resolution policy can be found on its website at www.futurexpower.com.au.
Alternatively, you can request a copy of this policy by calling us on (02) 7908 5746 or in writing to PO Box 12028, George St, QLD 4003. Customers who are unsatisfied with the outcome of our enquiry into their complaint may contact the relevant state Energy Ombudsman.
We are committed to respecting the privacy and protecting the personal information of our customers in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles.
Cable Energy's Privacy Policy can be found on its website at cable.energy.
Alternatively, you can request a copy of this policy by calling us on (02) 7908 5746 or in writing to PO Box 12028, George St, QLD 4003.
An 'Authorised Representative' is a person you have appointed and delegated to deal with us, on your behalf, with some authority over your account. An 'Advocate' is a person you have appointed to deal with us, on your behalf, but without any authority over your account.
You can authorise a 3rd party to speak on your behalf. You can either call or write to us with the following details:
We will contact you only if the authorised party refuses to speak to us or not in contact with us for more than 14 business days.
We are committed to providing energy service and appropriate hardship programs to our customers with diverse communication needs.
If the customer has difficulty with the English language, they can call the interpreter service on 13 14 50.
If the customer has any disabilities, they can appoint an authorised 3rd party or advocate to deal with us, on their behalf.
If the customer is residing in a remote area and doesn't have access to the internet, they can request a copy of this policy at no cost by calling us on (02) 7908 5746 or by writing to PO Box 12028, George St, QLD 4003.
For any further information or queries, please contact us via the below mediums:
Customer Service email address: hello@cable.energy
Customer Service Phone: (02) 7908 5746
Write to us:
Customer Service Manager
Level 1, 457 Elizabeth Street
Surry Hills NSW 2010
Interpreter Services: 13 14 50
This policy will be published on the Cable Energy website according to National Energy Retail Law.