At SSE Airtricity our focus is not just on delivering greener, lower cost energy. We recognise that from time to time customers can experience difficulty in paying their bills.
That’s why at SSE Airtricity our team is always available to help and advise customers, particularly those experiencing difficulty with their bills.
In particular we focus on doing more to provide our customers with practical tools. These include:
- providing budget payment plans spreading energy costs over 12 months as standard;
- increasing the number of contacts we make with customers to ensure customers having difficulty with their energy bills are engaging with us;
- assisting customers with the effective management of their energy costs and debt through payment arrangements;
- installing Pay-As-You-Go meters, of which we are not only the cheapest supplier but we are also the only supplier to offer a discounted tariff to our most in need customers;
- partnering with organisations such as MABS and St Vincent de Paul to help customers better manage their bills; and
- providing solutions that help customers improve the thermal efficiency of their homes to reduce their energy use.
As a result of these practical efforts we’ve seen a significant reduction in disconnections in the last year – a 42% reduction in fact on the previous year. That reduction is as a direct result of the significant amount of work that we’ve taken to assist customers in arrears. We’ve also installed more Pay-As-You-Go meters for our most in need customers over the last two years than any other supplier.
But we know more can always be done. That’s why we've just become the first energy supplier in over 20 years to enter into the An Post Household Budget Scheme. This scheme allows customers in receipt of a range of Social Welfare payments to pay regular amounts towards their energy bills by direct deduction. SSE Airtricity is also the first independent utility to enter the scheme, with all other participants in the scheme semi-state bodies.
Looking at the benefits that Pay-As-You-Go meters have provided to our customers in arrears, we’ve recognised that more and more customers would like the choice of switching from a credit bill meter to a Prepay Keypad meter. We’ve become the first major energy utility to enter the Prepay market and have recently commenced a pilot to install and promote a Prepay product for customers who would simply prefer to control how they budget and pay for their energy by switching to the convenience of a Prepay meter.
In all these ways we believe that we have led the industry in assisting customers in arrears and at risk of disconnection however we also recognise the real benefit that working together as an industry can bring to maintaining energy supply for customers in difficulty.
Today we have joined with other Irish Energy Suppliers as well as the Energy Minister Pat Rabbitte TD and the National Vice President of the Society of St Vincent de Paul, Tom McSweeney, to launch The Energy Engage Code – a new voluntary industry-led code that sets out a programme of measures that Suppliers will take to encourage customers in arrears and at risk of disconnection to engage with them to ensure that they remain connected to their energy supply.