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Financial hardship

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If you can't pay your bill because of illness, job loss or other hardship, apply for payment assistance to stay connected.

Summary

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If you’re having trouble paying because of financial hardship, you have the right to apply for short-term or long-term assistance. Your provider is committed to doing everything it can to keep customers in financial hardship connected. If you’re eligible, you’ll agree on a solution together that is realistic, appropriate and tailored to your situation. Applying is free.

The full Financial Hardship (Payment Assistance) Policy is on your provider’s website (Legal page). In the portal, Financial Hardship at the top of Billing › Bills and payments opens your provider’s financial hardship information.

Who it applies to

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You may be experiencing financial hardship if you can’t make a payment because of:

  • personal or household illness;
  • unemployment;
  • low or insufficient income, including reduced access to income;
  • being a victim-survivor of domestic or family violence;
  • a death in the family;
  • a change in personal or family circumstances;
  • a natural disaster;
  • unexpected events or unforeseen changes that have affected your income or spending;
  • other reasonable causes.

Help available

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Depending on your circumstances, assistance can include:

  • spend controls;
  • service restrictions and temporary plan downgrades at no cost, for all or specific services;
  • payment plans;
  • temporarily postponing or deferring payments;
  • an alternative payment arrangement;
  • discussing and moving to a prepaid service;
  • discounting or waiving debt;
  • waiving late payment fees and cancellation fees.

How to apply

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  1. Contact the support team and say you’re applying for financial hardship assistance. Either raise a support ticket, or call the support phone number shown in the portal under Support › Support tickets.
  2. To understand your situation, the team may ask about your circumstances or for supporting documents. They’ll only ask for information relevant to your application, and they’ll keep it strictly confidential.
  3. Together you agree on the assistance that suits your situation.

The support team’s hours are Monday to Friday, 9:00 am to 5:30 pm Australian Eastern Time, excluding public holidays in Victoria.

If domestic or family violence is affecting you, see also Domestic and family violence.

Contacts

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Free financial counselling

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Service Phone Website
National Debt Helpline 1800 007 007 ndh.org.au
Small Business Debt Helpline 1800 413 828 sbdh.org.au

Complaints

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To complain about how your financial hardship request was handled, raise a support ticket or call the support phone number shown in the portal. The Complaint Handling Policy is on your provider’s website (Legal page).

If you’re not happy with the outcome of your complaint, you can escalate it to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO):

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