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NewsLast chance for consumers to have their say on electricity prices
Last chance for consumers to have their say on electricity prices

Last chance for consumers to have their say on electricity prices

Tags: Energy Information FiftyUp Club
Last updated by Chris Zinn on

Consumers have 2 more days to have their say on soaring electricity prices in NSW, before they have their “day in court” on Thursday.

The tribunal regulating competition in Australia is opening its doors to the community and asking them what they think about electricity prices.

The 127,000-member FiftyUp Club is now canvassing consumers’ views and preparing a submission on their behalf.

Over-50’s particularly feel the pinch from hefty electricity bills. More than half (52%) say they are afraid to run their heater for fear of big winter bills.

In the past ten years the only cost that has gone up more than electricity (up 116%) was tobacco (up 127%), but electricity is a basic utility.

“The FiftyUp Club will be fronting the tribunal and will submit the views of its members for consideration in setting electricity prices,” Christopher Zinn, spokesperson for the FiftyUp Club said.

“The over 50’s are hurt most by increases in utilities, like electricity and gas, and any fluctuations can impact on their standard of living.”

“We live in a country where no one should be falling through the cracks in winter or going cold because of financial strain. Unfortunately this is all too common.”

Networks NSW is fighting power price cuts of $106-$313 proposed by the Australian Energy Regulator, saying they are not in consumers’ long-term interests.

The networks argue the cuts will lead to more blackouts and will not allow for adequate bushfire mitigation in regional areas.

There are only days left for consumers to take part in the FiftyUp Club Power Price Submission. Join for free at fiftyupclub.com for more details.

Originally posted on .

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Last chance for consumers to have their say on electricity prices

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Geoff
Geoff from NSW commented:

Lets go back to Sydney County Council days for a great and honest service, employing local staff for efficient maintenance work.. Keep the lid on price. 

lyn
lyn from NSW commented:

I switched over Electricity companies as recommended by fifty up club but am not happy with the way they bill you. I cannot understand their invoices and nothing shows up to tell you the charges per kilowat you are paying. So most important to me is "user friendly invoices" . I missed out on "pensionef discounts" because of their mistakes. I will be changing companies. 

Shelley
Shelley from NSW replied to lyn:

I also switched to Click and had to switch to another company due to constant billing errors and the staff giving ridiculous explanations such as: "Click Energy calculates the discount before government rebates are deducted because it wants to give its customers the largest possible discount." Obviously this is nonsense and, of course, Click deducted the overpayment on the following bill - but without stating it was doing so. Consequently I again had to spend a lot of time doing all the calculations to work out what Click was doing. And this is just one example of the many billing errors!!! 

lyn
lyn from NSW replied to Shelley:

Hi Shelley, Thank you for your comment, and I thought I was the only one with problems with Click Energy. My son, an Electrical Engineer and my nephew a Solicitor for Energy Companies said they are not transparent and the 17 percent discount does not mean anything unless you can see their charges I think that before being recommended this should have been checked out both by Fifty Up Club and 2GB. Shelley, who did you switch to and are they user friendly? 

Shelley
Shelley from NSW replied to lyn:

Hi Lyn, Sorry for the delay in responding, I've only just seen your message. I switched to AGL but the switch has only just gone through, so I'm not sure yet if they're 'user friendly'. I do know they've deleted a lot of the extra charges they used to have and have become more competitive with other companies. If you're considering the current offer from Energy Australia, I would be checking their charges carefully and comparing them with other retailers in your area. Energy Australia was taken over by a company which used to offer good discounts but their charges were higher than other companies, which cancelled out the discounts. I'm unsure if they've changed this since adopting the Energy Australia name. Hope some of this helps. 

david
david from NSW commented:

The survey did not address the real issue to me. 35 years ago we did not pay a daily charge to connect to the network. There were3 suppliers in Sydney/ Gosford and all was good. we were told the amalgamation on St George/ Mackellar & Sydney county Councils would lead to efficiency and lower prices. It did not. Why do I keep hearing prices need to rise to cover infrastructure when that is what the daily connection fee is for? Secondly, given that the supply companies only pay 6c per kWh for solar power why am I charged nearly 50c during the peak? 6c to 50 is a hell of a mark up. Third according to the ABS from 1979 to now there is a 3.29:1 inflation factor. In 1979 power for over 600kWh per quarter was 3.2c so that equates to 10.3c/kWh. Someone needs to point out the realities of life to IPART as they seem to have forgotten this. 

Leanne
Leanne from NSW commented:

Yes I too have not used any heating appliances for the last 2 years, was using gas heater but disconnected the gas service last year. This household is rugged up in extra clothing and sitting in sleeping bags of an evening :). Thank you 50's up club. cheers 

Katerina
Katerina from NSW commented:

It would be great if the Electricity companies showed a little less greed by considering the hardship they are constantly placing on consumers. Perhaps they should be content to keep their huge profits down, so that pensioners and people on low incomes can live in dignity and not have to depend on charity. 

Steven
Steven from NSW commented:

The most important factors are safety and reliability. Electricity is relatively cheap compared to registration, insurance, council rates and health cover. The AER decision on funding this year will reduce the safety and reliability of the electricity supply and cause 1000s of jobs to be lost. 

Stephen
Stephen from NSW commented:

If the power companies can not service the community adequately with their present deal, then relinquish the license and give it back to the government. The government should be providing essential services anyway. WHY do we have career politicians who have no vision but take what they can? 

Mario
Mario from VIC commented:

Yeah ok. lets just blame the Labor party. In Victoria it all went downhill since the Liberals ( namely Jeff Kenneth) done the dirty deal and sold the S.E.C. (State Electricity Commission) to the private sector. That's exactly where it all went downhill from there. Thousands of jobs were lost and the prices just kept creeping up due to the greediness of the private companies. So let's be honest if we are going to talk about who's fault it is hey. It's a well known fact that the Liberals are all about giving big sums of money to the big companies mistakingly thinking that it would create jobs. But what a big mistake that turned out to be. 

Stuart
Stuart from NSW commented:

If the labour party have their way none of us will be able to afford electricity. It is high time we become realistic and relalise climate change is another furfy. In the 1970's science told us the earth would freeze over. I wonder what next will happen. Stuart 

raymond
raymond from NSW commented:

Being pensioners we are lucky to get a bit of relief in the form of a rebate, but lately the prices of electricity has increased so much that the rebate is not big enough to help cover costs. 

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