Add Category
Posted
Welfare organisations are seeing a surge in the number of clients who are struggling to pay their electricity bills, even before a price hike kicks in next month.
And it's not just those on welfare— they're seeing people who are working but still struggling to meet their payments.
At the Anglicare office in Penrith, on Sydney's western outskirts, Karina Honyi said she is seeing two to three people a day, just about their power bills.
"At the moment we're seeing the summer bills coming through," she told 7.30.
"Anything from $800 upwards is normal for a family. For a single person $450 to $500."
For some people, things have become so desperate that they are doing without essentials like food and medicine to try and make their bill payments.
"People are making decisions between medication and paying utilities," Ms Honyi said.
"Do I not take the medication I need to get better? Do I not buy food that I need?
"One meal a day is their food. It comes down to that for a lot of them."
Maree Wood is one of those people seeking help from Anglicare.
Her husband died seven years ago and she is caring for a bed-ridden daughter who had a stroke.
"She needs 24-hour, seven-days-a-week care. She can't do anything for herself," she told 7.30.
Ms Wood can't reduce her power usage without turning off the hospital equipment her daughter needs.
Her latest bill was $952 and she is already on a plan to pay it off.
"Seventy dollars a fortnight doesn't pay off a $900 bill, so I have to go and ask for help," she said.
"It just goes up and up and up, every time you look at it."
With power companies announcing that prices will rise a further 15 to 20 per cent from next month, the future is bleak for people like Ms Wood.
"There's nothing she can turn off or anything she can change," Ms Hunyi said of Ms Wood's plight.
"She's doing the best she can."
Topics: electricity-energy-and-utilities, welfare, community-and-society, penrith-2750, australia