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We’ve recently prepared a report on investigated complaints involving the negotiation of payment plans. We undertook this because payment plans are the best single tool for resolving cases involving financial hardship — we also wanted to be able to track trends and patterns in this area.
EWOV’s Annual Report 2008 reported that 1,027 payment plans were negotiated in the 2007-08 year.
The offering of a payment plan is a regulatory requirement where a customer has identified to the company that they are in hardship — or has been identified by the company as being in hardship. The negotiation of the amount of the payments is often difficult — it involves reconciling the customer’s capacity to pay with the company’s reasonable expectation of being paid for the energy and water used — and not allowing debt to accumulate.
Typically the EWOV resolution involves negotiating with the company to accept a lower payment than the one the company originally suggested.
The main issues category where payment plans are frequently part of the resolution is Credit>Payment Difficulties, which has a number of further categories.
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