The Guidelines are the product of the collective efforts of the Communications Alliance, Financial Counselling Australia and the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman.
The purpose of the Guidelines is to “enable customers who are experiencing financial hardship to stay connected to essential telecommunications services while assisting them to meet their financial obligations.”
The Guidelines intend to uphold and reinforce the protections offered to consumers under the Telecommunications Consumer Protections Code 2012 (the ‘TCP Code’). The TCP Code includes a requirement for Telco providers to consider hardship. The new Guidelines provide some clearer parameters for Telco providers to fairly and efficiently assess financial hardship and develop policy and process for effectively dealing with hardship applications.
The Guidelines establish industry best practice principles for Telco providers to identify and respond to vulnerable consumers and situations of financial hardship. They clarify the obligations of Telco providers and establish six critical principles for financial hardship policies: accountability; accessibility; fairness, flexibility, mutuality, and proportionality.
Fiona Guthrie of Financial Counselling Australia said in her statement that the document “changes the conversation” between Telcos and customers in financial hardship for the better. While the Guidelines are not yet an industry-accepted code of practice, this document has ushered in positive changes to the relationship between consumers and telecommunication service providers.
For further details on the Guidelines, please see the media release provided by the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman.
