Regional Victorians struggle to pay their water bills amid COVID-19 lockdowns
Amid coronavirus lockdowns, regional Victorians are battling just as hard as those in Melbourne to pay their water bills.
VICTORIANS across the state are struggling to pay for one of life’s essentials — water.
As COVID-19 lockdowns force an ever greater number of households and businesses to the wall, data collected by Victoria’s Essential Services Commission shows the number forced to seek some form of financial relief has soared to 22,655.
The weekly number seeking the Department of Health and Human Services’ $650 utility relief grants have surged fourfold, from the historic average of 175 to 714 in the final week of August.
About 600 of those grant applications lodged with the DHHS came from Melbourne, with the remainder from regional Victoria.
But that data does not include the many more regional Victorians seeking direct support from rural and regional water corporations, rather the DHHS.
Each week almost 400 regional Victorians are seeking and gaining direct financial help from their water corporations, more than five times the historical weekly average of 75 a week before COVID-19 restrictions started.
The ESC reported water corporations stopped restricting customers’ water supply and initiating legal action for non-payment of bills in late April.
However there are still 133 customers who are still on restricted supply.
ESC water director Marcus Crudden said the commission had recently amended its customer service code for urban and rural water corporations to incorporate new hardship principles developed by the National Cabinet.
“These changes were designed to ensure Victoria’s consumer protection framework is consistent, transparent and accessible for the benefit of all,” he said.
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