Telco financial hardship protections
A guide for financial counsellors and community workers
This guide
This is a guide to the minimum legal protections for telco customers experiencing financial hardship. The guide provides some practical ways financial counsellors and community workers can support their clients to access these protections. Consumers will also find this guide useful for a comprehensive understanding of telco financial hardship protections.
The legal protections are set out by the Telecommunications (Financial Hardship) Industry Standard 2024 (the Standard). The standard commenced in full on 29 March 2024.
What to expect from a provider
In summary, providers are obliged to proactively identify customers who require financial hardship assistance and may contact a customer to offer assistance.
A customer may also contact their provider to initiate a request for assistance. In such cases, a customer can expect their provider to:
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Provide information about their payment assistance policies, discuss options for assistance and offer to provide an application form
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Help them make an application for financial assistance support if they have specific accessibility needs
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Not request information demonstrating financial hardship unless the request is for long term assistance
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Maintain their service connection – disconnection can only be used as a last resort
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Assess applications in a timely manner and notify the outcome of the assessment within 7 business days
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Provide options for assistance that are realistic, appropriate and tailored to suit the needs of the customer.