Cost-of-living pressure bites with spike in pleas for energy bill help

The number of people trying to access the crisis support program designed to help people who are having short-term difficulties paying their electricity or gas bill has surged in the last 12 months.

Cost-of-living pressures have resulted in a surge in crisis support applications to the state government for assistance in the payment of soaring energy bills.

The rise in Energy Accounts Payment Assistance (EAPA) applications to Service NSW has led to a warning being posted on the website for ­people to expect a delay of “up to six weeks” before a staff member might contact them.

The EAPA crisis support program is designed to help people who are having short-term difficulty paying their electricity and/or gas bill because they have lost their job, have unexpected costs or due to a natural disaster.

Households can receive a total of as much as $2000 under the scheme through a maximum of two electricity vouchers and two gas vouchers. Voucher applications have long been used as a measure of financial stress within the community.

Figures provided to The Sunday Telegraph show the number of applications has increased over the last financial year from an average of 250 requests per day between July 2022 and May 2023 to an average of 330 requests per day between July 2023 and May 2024.

Please for help with energy bills have spiked in NSW Picture: iStock.

As for the actual number of vouchers handed out, the figures show the numbers have been on the rise since the Covid lockdown years.

Since July 2023, the government has approved 51,000 EAPA vouchers.

The figure does not include those handed out by the more than 200 approved charity organisations, which are yet to be calculated.

Last year, the combined number of government and charity-issued vouchers totalled just over 70,000 – up from just over 60,000 and 62,000 in the Covid lockdown years.

EAPA payments this financial year are capped at $500, with a household able to apply for up to two vouchers per financial year for gas, and two for electricity.

The Service NSW website advised that due to the “high volume of EAPA applications”, it could take “up to 6 weeks” for someone to make contact.

“In the meantime, please call your energy retailer to let them know you’ve applied for EAPA,” it said.

“Your retailer cannot disconnect you while you’re waiting to be assessed for EAPA.”

A spokeswoman for Energy Minister Penny Sharpe said while six weeks was the maximum wait time, customers were currently being contacted in two to three weeks.

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