The Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) proposed a rule change to support people experiencing hardship which would require retailers to provide a bill credit to customers experiencing affordability difficulties who are not on a deemed better offer.
EWOQ supported a joint response with EWOSA and EWON to the proposed rule change. We suggested a better option may be to require retailers to obtain explicit informed consent to automatically place customers who are on their hardship program on the deemed better offer, which could have more enduring positive benefits for these hardship customers.