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The report identifies four key areas of improvement for providers in responding to consumers in financial hardship:
- Accessible, proactive and timely hardship assistance
- Effective hardship arrangements that factor in consumers’ circumstances
- Payment plans recorded and applied accurately
- Regular engagement with consumers to support better outcomes
The new process is expected to go live on 1 July 2023, and we will have another update about joinder criteria in early 2023. Key features already locked in include:
Under the new rules, providers will be required to offer more tailored assistance to consumers who struggle to make their payments. Providers will also be required to proactively identify consumers who may be experiencing hardship, and offer additional advice relating to hardship assistance.
The TIO received over 1600 complaints about financial hardship in the 2023 financial year, a slight increase on the previous year. The current cost of living crisis highlights the need to have adaptable and compassionate responses to hardship.
The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman’s Quarter 2 (Q2) 2020-21 Complaints Report shows while the number of complaints from small businesses decreased compared to the previous quarter, the proportion increased to 17 per cent of total complaints. This is the highest proportion of phone and internet complaints from small businesses in the last five quarters.
Scammers may try to scare you about a computer or internet problem
Typically, the scam begins with a scammer pretending they’re calling from the technical support team of a large telco or computer company.
The scammer will try to scare you about a computer or internet problem, so they can convince you to give your personal or banking details and access to your computer. For this reason, these scams are also referred to as ‘remote access’ scams.
For our Victorian-based teams, the personal and the professional continued to collide as the pandemic extended our time of working from home. Our West Australian-based teams had the opportunity to settle in and establish our Perth presence, seeking to expand our operating hours and make deeper connections with the community in the West.
We support the proposed constitutionally enshrined Voice to Parliament as the first step in this journey.
As an Ombudsman service, we believe in the power of listening to achieve fair outcomes. We see our support for the Voice as a natural extension of the commitment to reconciliation we have made through our Reconciliation Action Plan. We know from our community outreach work with First Nations communities that listening to the members of a community is how to achieve the best outcomes for that community.
The report reveals the TIO continues to see systemic issues involving one-size-fits-all processes, providers failing to meet or understand their legal obligations, and poor sales practices. These issues can lead to unintended consequences for consumers, including financial pressure and significant distress.