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Speaker 1: All right, and of course keen to hear your thoughts

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Speaker 1: throughout the afternoon. You can text anytime on ninety two

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Speaker 1: ninety two right. Consumer New Zealand is calling for power

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Speaker 1: companies to stop switching off the power for those who

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Speaker 1: can't pay. Each year, around forty thousand New Zealanders are

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Speaker 1: disconnected from their power supply for non payment. Despite this,

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Speaker 1: the big four power companies together made more than half

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Speaker 1: a billion dollars in profit last year. Paulfuge is power

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Speaker 1: switch manager at Consumer New Zealand, and he joins me, now,

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Speaker 1: thanks for your time, Paul, Hi, gooday, Hey, how many

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Speaker 1: payments do you have to have missed before the power

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Speaker 1: is switched off?

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Speaker 2: What depends on the retailer, but usually depends on which

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Speaker 2: sort of plan you're on. If you're on a pre

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Speaker 2: pay plan, because the power can be disconnected automatically. If

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Speaker 2: you're on a post pay plan, usually get two or

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Speaker 2: three reminders before you're disconnected, So.

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Speaker 1: That could be a month then or two months maybe

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Speaker 1: after you hadn't paid a bill.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, on post pay, it'll be a couple of months

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Speaker 2: before it got to that point.

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Speaker 1: Okay, how long are these people disconnected from their power

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Speaker 1: supply because they don't pay the bills.

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Speaker 2: Well, it varies, you know, on prepay it can be

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Speaker 2: a matter of hours, you know, on other options it

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Speaker 2: can be a lot longer. It can be days or

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Speaker 2: even weeks. We've heard so, was.

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Speaker 1: That because you've all of a sudden contacted them said

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Speaker 1: I've made a payment and they switch it back on

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Speaker 1: for you. Or is that just the length of time

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Speaker 1: it can take for them to get a power back on.

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Speaker 2: No, it's right. So with the modern meters, the power

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Speaker 2: can be rest toward fairly fairly immediately. So as soon

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Speaker 2: as you know, pay what's owed, they continue on back

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Speaker 2: on immediately.

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Speaker 1: Forty thousand New Zealanders is a lot, isn't it. Are

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Speaker 1: you surprised by that?

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Speaker 2: No, not really. It's been that way for a few

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Speaker 2: years now. It's been pretty consistent finding we've had people

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Speaker 2: have been cut off. I guess what's of more concern

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Speaker 2: is the prepay for us, is that's the automatic disconnections

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Speaker 2: that can be we feel as a little bit dangerous.

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Speaker 2: With the other one. For postpaid, there's usually quite a

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Speaker 2: bit of time for intervention before disconnection occurs.

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Speaker 1: Yes, I can understand the concerns around the prepay if

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Speaker 1: we don't ever switch the power off. Aren't we just

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Speaker 1: sending the message that it's okay not to pay.

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Speaker 2: Well, that's right, it needs to be balanced, that's right

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Speaker 2: if people will just if we just said no, you

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Speaker 2: would need to be cut off, that would create another issue,

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Speaker 2: wouldn't it, because bigger then we'll not pay well. So

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Speaker 2: we're not saying that it needs to be balanced out,

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Speaker 2: we sue needs to be more protections around disconnections and

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Speaker 2: more time for interventions and other mechanisms need to be

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Speaker 2: in place to stop those people who genuinely can't afford it,

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Speaker 2: and whether it be genuine harm caused to take place

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Speaker 2: before disconnection occurs.

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Speaker 1: I've occasionally received litlepool. I'm going to admit this where

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Speaker 1: I've missed a bill and the first that I get,

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Speaker 1: generally the utilities company will say to me, hey, look,

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Speaker 1: if you're having problems paying, we can come up with

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Speaker 1: a payment plan. Does that happen with the power companies?

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Speaker 2: And yes, that's right. Genuinely they're pretty good about it.

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Speaker 2: And as long as people are making a genuine effort

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Speaker 2: to pay, you won't be cut lock. People don't realize

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Speaker 2: that the people who get cut off. We here are

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Speaker 2: the people who go to ground who just don't respond.

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Speaker 2: But if you're making it. If you do, you are

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Speaker 2: having trouble paying, you contact your retailer. They most of

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Speaker 2: them will come to the party and help you out

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Speaker 2: and come up with the payment plan or some other mechanism.

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Speaker 2: And as long as you're making an attempt to pay,

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Speaker 2: generally you will not be cut off.

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Speaker 1: Great, So the advice is, don't be shy about it,

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Speaker 1: get on the phone, call them, explain the situation and

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Speaker 1: find a solution as opposed to being cut off.

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Speaker 2: That's right. The worst thing you can do is just

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Speaker 2: not respond.

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Speaker 1: Is the problem here that power companies are charging too much?

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Speaker 2: Well, that's right. If you take a step back, we

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Speaker 2: have to ask why ultricity has got so expensive. And

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Speaker 2: I guess that's the elephant in the room. You know

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Speaker 2: what's causing you know the you know what's causing this

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Speaker 2: problem is ultrac has got quite expensive. It's thirty five

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Speaker 2: percent more expensive in real terms than it was at

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Speaker 2: the beginning of the market, as we would offer a

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Speaker 2: bit more recently, but it has got increasing expensive and

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Speaker 2: it's a cost of living crisis. So it's not just

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Speaker 2: not just outre I see. Everything else has got more

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Speaker 2: expensive as well, so people are finding it generally a

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Speaker 2: lot harder to pay their bill. About nineteen percent of

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Speaker 2: people are struggling to pay their power bills at the moment.

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Speaker 1: Hey, Paul, thanks so much for joining us today and

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Speaker 1: talking us through that. That was Paul Fuge from power Switch.

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