Financial Hardship Policy

7 No charges
We do not charge for an assessment of, or subsequently for administration of,
an arrangement under our Financial Hardship Policy.
8 Step 1: You need to tell us about it.
(a) Sometimes, we may become aware that you are experiencing hardship.
But usually, we’ll only know if you tell us.
(b) The first thing to do to make a hardship claim is contact us and tell us:
(i) who you are;
(ii) what [Telco short name] bills you have difficulty with;
(iii) what the difficulty is.
9 Step 2: We ask for it in writing.
(a) Now, there may be some unusual cases where you can’t quickly get us
anything in writing. If that seems to be the case, we’ll try to deal with
you on the telephone – but you must give us something in writing
without unnecessary delay.
(b) Schedule A is an Application Form you may use to satisfy this
requirement, and give us other initial details we almost always need.
(c) You must send any documentation we require to the email address or
postal address in section 3 above, addressed to ‘Financial Hardship
Officer, [Telco short name]’.
(d) We will limit required documentation to that which is relevant to the
Financial Hardship assessment and not unduly onerous.
(e) Our assessment of an application may be based on the information you
provide or other information available to us.
(f) We may cancel any financial hardship arrangement if you have provided false or incomplete information.
10 Step 3: We’ll check if there are any disputed amounts.
(a) Our financial hardship arrangements are for people who agree they
owe money, but can’t pay it for good reason. They don’t apply if you
dispute a bill or say you don’t have to pay it.
(b) We’ll ask you:
(i) to clearly identify the problem bill/s;
(ii) to confirm they are not disputed; and
(iii) to confirm that you intend to pay when you reasonably can.
(c) If there is a dispute, we’ll refer you to our disputes policy instead of this
Financial Hardship Policy.
3
Financial Hardship Policy
11 Step 4: We’ll decide if it could be considered as financial hardship.
(a) First, we’ll consider if you’re telling us you can’t pay our bill/s. If you’re
not saying that, it’s not a case of hardship.
(b) Second, we’ll consider whether non-payment is reasonable. For instance, if you cannot pay us because you choose to continue to pay a
month-to-month streaming sports service membership, we might
consider it unreasonable to pay that instead of your phone bill.
(c) Third, we’ll consider why you’re financially restricted. Relevant reasons
may include:
(i) you lost your job;
(ii) a dependant of your lost their job and you have to support them;
(iii) family breakdown;
(iv) illness;
(v) unexpected and unavoidable extra financial commitments e.g.
medical bills from an accident.
We won’t try to give a complete list, but these examples are good
guidelines for the kinds of reasons we can accept. If your reasons are as
serious and good as these ones, we’ll be flexible about accepting them.
(d) Fourth, we’ll consider whether a change of arrangements could help
you pay. If there’s nothing we can do under this policy that would make
any difference, we can’t make a hardship arrangement with you.
If all the above are satisfied, we’ll accept that you are making a financial
hardship claim.
12 Step 5: We may ask for documentary proof.
(a) We may ask you to provide documentary evidence that you are telling
us the truth.
(b) We will limit required documentation to that which is relevant to the
Financial Hardship assessment and not unduly onerous.
(c) Normally, we’ll only ask for documentation if:
(i) it appears that a financial arrangement will need to be long term;
(ii) we consider the amount to be repaid large or significant;
(iii) you not been our customer very long; or
(iv) we reasonably believe there is a possibility of fraud.
We may ask for documentation in other cases, based on similarly
serious reasons, but we will always limit required documentation to
that which is relevant to the Financial Hardship assessment and not
unduly onerous.
(d) Examples of documents we might require are:
(i) evidence that you lost employment;
(ii) evidence that you have consulted a financial counsellor;
(iii) a statutory declaration by you;
4
Financial Hardship Policy
(iv) a statutory declaration by someone familiar with your
circumstances; and
(v) a medical certificate.
(e) The purpose of asking for documentation is to help justify your claim,
and to help us be flexible about what arrangements may assist in your
particular circumstances.
(f) We may require evidence of your capacity to pay e.g. a financial
statement confirmed by a statutory declaration. As a normal rule, if we
ask you for any proof or documentation and you don’t provide it within
10 working days, your hardship application is considered withdrawn.
(But we won’t unreasonably refuse to reinstate it if you later ask us to.)
(g) If we ask for documentation:
(i) you must send it to the email address or postal address in section
3 of this policy, addressed to ‘Financial Hardship Officer, [Telco
short name]’; and
(ii) we will comply with applicable privacy laws.
13 Step 6: We will make a decision about whether we accept that you’ve
demonstrated financial hardship.
(a) We will do that after you have done what is required of you under steps
1 to 5.
(b) If you have an active email address, we will notify you by email.
Otherwise, we’ll normally notify you by post or any other method you
asked for and we agreed to.
(c) The rest of the steps assume that we have accepted that your claim of
financial hardship.
14 Step 7: We’ll work with you to agree on arrangements
(a) Our notification under step 6 may include a proposal for a hardship
arrangement.
(b) We will be flexible about arrangements, taking your circumstances into
account. But we do have policy guidelines.
(c) You must contact our Financial Hardship Officer by telephone or email,
normally within 10 working days after we send the notification.
(d) If you do not contact the Financial Hardship Officer within the required
time, your application will be considered withdrawn (but we will not
unreasonably refuse to reinstate it if you contact us within a reasonable
time and ask us to).
(e) When you contact the Financial Hardship Officer, they (or a delegate
they appoint) will discuss the proposed arrangements with you, and see
if you accept them or whether other arrangements can be agreed.
(f) An arrangement won’t commence unless you indicate that you accept
it.
5
Financial Hardship Policy
15 Step 8: If we can reach an arrangement with you …
(a) Sometimes, it may not be possible to agree an arrangement with you
within our policy guidelines (applied reasonably flexibly). If we do agree
a hardship arrangement with you, we will inform you:
(i) of:
(A) the amount and frequency of any ‘catch up’ payments you
must make;
(B) the term of the arrangement and/or any review date;
(C) any service restrictions that may apply; and
(D) your other rights and obligations under the arrangement;
(ii) that you must advise us promptly if your circumstances change;
and
(iii) that you may request us to give you details of the arrangement in
writing (in which case we will do so).
(b) We will give you the information in paragraph 15(a):
(i) if your application is received on or before 31 December 2019 –
within 7 working days; and
(ii) if your application is received on or after 1 January 2020 – within
5 working days –
after specific Financial Hardship arrangements have been agreed.
16 Hardship arrangements – our options and policies
(a) We will consider options for a hardship arrangement, including:
(i) temporarily postponing or deferring payments (for a longer
period than would typically be offered to customers requesting
an extension outside of Financial Hardship arrangements);
(ii) agreeing on an alternative arrangement, plan, or contract,
including discussing pre-paid services;
(iii) discounting or waiving of debt;
(iv) waiving late payment fees;
(v) waiving cancellation fees; or
(vi) incentives for making payments, for example payment matching.
(b) Where possible and appropriate, we will provide you with flexible
repayment options to meet your individual circumstances, including
options appropriate to the ongoing management of accounts and/or
liabilities where being the victim of domestic or family violence
contributed to your inability to pay the debt.
(c) For existing debts, a deferred payment plan should ensure that the debt
is paid:
(i) at not less than 10% of the amount outstanding a month; and
(ii) in full within six months.
(d) Your debt should not increase after the end of the current billing period.
6
Financial Hardship Policy
(e) We will also consider options for keeping your service connected
without increasing your debt, including:
(i) spend controls;
(ii) restriction of service, in respect of overall or specific services;
(iii) transferring you to a pre-paid service;
(iv) transferring you to a contract which includes hard caps or
shaping; or
(v) low cost interim options until you can continue with original
payments.
(f) An arrangement must be one that you can comply with. If no such
arrangement appears possible within a reasonably flexible application
of the policy, we cannot offer you a hardship arrangement.
(g) Note: The Financial Hardship options included in this policy do not
represent a range of options from which a customer experiencing
Financial Hardship can choose. Rather, they represent options we have
available to offer an individual customer, depending on what is most
appropriate in the circumstances, the telecommunications services we
offer and our operational and system requirements.
17 We won’t normally take credit management action while we are discussing a
possible arrangement with you, or an arrangement is in place
(a) We will suspend credit management action while an arrangement
under this Policy is being discussed.
(b) We will suspend credit management action while an arrangement
under this Policy is in place, unless:
Default on arrangement
(i) you do not meet your obligations under the arrangement;
(ii) you do not contact us to discuss a new arrangement;
(iii) we have taken reasonable steps to contact you; and
(iv) we have been unable to contact you; or
Reasonable circumstances
(v) we decide it is reasonable to do so given the circumstances, e.g.
to prevent a further increase in the debt owed; and
(vi) we have taken reasonable steps to contact you; and
(vii) we have been unable to contact you; or
Agreed frustration
(viii) You agree with us that the arrangement is unable to be
completed.
18 Obligations during term of arrangement
During the term of a hardship arrangement:
(a) you and we must comply with it;
7
Financial Hardship Policy
(b) we will review the arrangement if you notify us that your circumstances
have changed; and
(c) we will not sell your debt.
19 Our dealings with you
(a) Our Financial Hardship Officer and delegates:
(i) will treat you with courtesy and respect;
(ii) will be understanding in cases of genuine financial hardship;
(iii) are entitled to be treated by you with courtesy and respect; and
(iv) are entitled to act in our reasonable interests, especially in
making sure claims are genuine and we are not disadvantaged
without good cause.
(b) We will make attempts to ascertain whether you have understood the
information we provide to you and that we request from you.
20 Costs associated with this policy
There are no costs to you for making a financial hardship application or
otherwise in connection with this policy.
21 Training
Our Financial Hardship Officer and delegates must:
(a) read this policy in full before commencing duties and at least once each
two months after that;
(b) read Chapter 7 of the Telecommunications Consumer Protections Code
C628:2019 in full before commencing duties and at least once each six
months after that; and
(c) participate in all further training about the policy that we direct.
22 Where to get more information and assistance
(a) Financial Counsellors are trained and accredited to work in the local
community to provide remedial, preventative and advocacy services for
people in financial distress (or who are in danger of entering financial
distress) with a focus on people of low income.
(b) They are generally funded by State and Federal Governments and
services are provided free of charge.
(c) A Financial Counsellor works with you to clarify and analyse your
financial situation, explain financial and legal documents and processes,
and identify and discuss options for resolving financial problems.
(d) While a Financial Counsellor may assist you in negotiating with
creditors, you are always in control over what course of action will be
taken.
(e) In some regions, Consumer Advocates offer advice about consumer
rights to Customers.
8
Financial Hardship Policy
23 Contacting your local Financial Counsellor or Consumer Advocate
There are many financial counsellors who work in community organisations
across Australia. For instance, you can:
(a) Contact the National Debt Helpline at www.ndh.org.au or on 1800 007
007.
(b) Call 1800 686 175 to speak to a rural financial counsellor for financial
counselling to primary producers, fishers and small rural businesses that
are suffering financial hardship.
(c) Google search for ‘community financial counsellors’.
24 Complaints
(a) If you wish to seek a review of the outcome of a Financial Hardship
application, you can do so under our Complaints Handling Process.
(b) You can access our Complaints Handling Process:
(i) from the link on our home page; or
(ii) by requesting a copy from our Financial Hardship Officer, via one
of the contact points in section 3 above.