Survey finds 1 in 8 Australians cannot afford to pay electricity bill

Updated

A survey of Australian households has found one in eight people cannot afford to pay their electricity bills.

The Ernst & Young survey of households in Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland showed more than one in 10 people have missed more than three bill payments in the past 12 months.

The proportion of customers often or occasionally worried about being able to pay their electricity bill has also remained consistently high at 70 per cent since the same survey last year.

Earlier this month, the ABC revealed some household bills had gone up as much as $1,000 in the past five years.

Ernst & Young's Jenny Young said the survey sought to gauge how people are coping with rising energy costs.

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"Electricity prices are continuing to be a cause of financial stress for Australian consumers," she told the ABC.

"Most are citing the reason for missing a bill to being unable to afford the payment, so that was the single biggest reason for not paying on time.

"It is causing concern, a lot of people are very worried about financial stress in general but electricity bills are one of the key financial stressors."

Federal Parliament has announced a Senate inquiry to investigate whether the so-called gold plating of Australia's electricity networks is artificially driving up the cost of electricity.

Up to 60 per cent of some household electricity bills can be attributed to network costs, which is the amount passed on to consumers for maintaining infrastructure such as poles and wires.

The Energy Retailers Association of Australia (ERAA) said there were hardship programs available to consumers who were suffering financial stress.

"Your energy retailer is there to help when you have payment difficulties. Whether it's a short term difficulty or a longer term hardship, your retailer can help tailor a payment plan," ERAA chief executive Cameron O'Reilly said.

"If you think you are unable to pay your energy bill, please to talk to your retailer as early as possible to see what options are available.

"This may include the retailer arranging an extension on bill payments if necessary, creating affordable payment plans to help get back on track, providing financial counselling or making sure you get full entitlements from government agencies such as Centrelink."

The survey also found nine in 10 people said they had, or would consider, switching to solar energy.

"The interest in solar is very much driven by the opportunity to save money and that was by far and away the most dominant reason ... to switch to solar," Ms Young said.

"Not everybody does make the switch to solar because of the cost of installation but there is significant interest around solar."

Topics: electricity-energy-and-utilities, business-economics-and-finance, australia

First posted