Older Australians are demanding more affordable electricity bills

Older Australians are demanding more affordable electricity bills, consumer advocacy group FiftyUp Club, will tell the competition tribunal today.

The tribunal is opening its doors to consumer to have their say as a major legal battle over power prices enters the community consultation phase.

More than 8,000 older Australians gave their opinion on the affordability of electricity in two separate FiftyUp Club surveys being presented to the Tribunal today.

One of those members, 65-year-old Charles Falzon who lives in Western Sydney believes the electricity companies are being unfair.

"We're are a rich country, people our age shouldn't have to go cold in the winter because electricity is too expensive"

"Electricity companies are just greedy, they just want us to keep paying more."

A chorus of older Australians share his view with 74% of members believing they had been paying too much for their electricity bill for too long.

It is up to the regulators to get the balance right between affordability, reliability, safety and quality when it came to consumers’ long-term interests, however 85% of older Australians believed they had failed to do this.

The electricity bill has risen more than any other good or service in the past 10 years with the exception of cigarettes. More than half (52%) of older Australians have been switching off their heaters and rugging up to manage this hefty bill.

“The power bill is causing consumers financial strain” the FiftyUp Club’s Christopher Zinn said.

“We are asking the Tribunal to make a decision in the long-term interests of consumers and keep bills both manageable and affordable.”

The FiftyUp Club is a consumer network with more than 127,000 members aged 50 and over.