Financial Hardship is a term used to describe a situation where a person is unable to meet their financial commitments due to one or more factors contributing to their financial position. Common contributing factors include:
If you are having a problem paying your bill, or you wish to discuss options available to you to minimise your bill, call Nehos Accounts today on 1300 726 889
Monday - Friday 9am - 5:00pm EST
The earlier you contact us, the better. Discussing your concerns gives us the opportunity to help you manage your bills.
If you do require time to pay an outstanding amount, agreeing to a payment plan and sticking to it can help prevent disconnection or restriction of your service. Disconnection of your service is used only as a last resort, and we will endeavour to work with you to ensure this does not happen.
To assist us in establishing the level of support you require, dependent on your individual circumstance, we may request supporting evidence, including, but not limited to:
If you successfully apply for financial hardship, Nehos will negotiate with you to reach an agreement on arrangements more suitable to your circumstances.It is a fundamental principle of any hardship arrangement that the repayment should be sufficient to cover both expected future use of the service at an appropriate level, and reduce the level of the applicant’s debt over time. Crucially, the agreement should ensure that further purchases from Nehos do not cause the applicant to go into further debt, or substantially contribute to a worsening of the applicant’s financial position. To this end, while the financial hardship arrangement is in place, we will not sell debts, report hardship customers to credit agencies or suspend or disconnect the services of hardship customer due to debt.
Ideally, we strive to develop arrangements that will allow applicants to return to purchasing services on an ordinary basis as soon as possible.
We deal with financial hardship on a case by case basis but as a general rule financial hardship will not be available to business customers. There may be exceptions to this, for example sole-traders or other small-businesses which are genuinely unable to operate without the ongoing participation of a single person. In such situations we will assess whether financial hardship may be available by reference to the individual circumstances of the applicant.
In assessing your application for hardship we will take into account
We may also request other information about and evidence of your financial position and circumstances. Without this information we may be unable to assess your eligibility for financial hardship. Once we have received the information, we will advise you within 7 days of your eligibility for assistance. When we reach an agreement we will put that in writing. You must inform us if your circumstances either improve or deteriorate during the agreement. The provision of false information is grounds to end any financial hardship arrangement.
There are options available for minimising your debts and staying connected whilst managing your spending. Examples include:
You can talk to a financial counsellor from anywhere in Australia by ringing 1800 007 007 between 9:30AM and 4:30PM Monday to Friday. This free-call will connect you to the nearest financial counsellor in your state or territory; alternatively you can find counsellors near you and get more information on financial counselling by visiting https://moneysmart.gov.au/managing-debt/financial-counselling