Policy

AEMC: protections for customers struggling with energy bills strengthen on 30 March 2027, and a draft would ban retailers requiring proof of financial circumstances before helping

If you are behind on a power or gas bill in NSW, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania or the ACT, a rule the Australian Energy Market Commission made on 10 September changes what your retailer must do before it disconnects you. From 30 March 2027 the minimum disconnection amount applies to all customers, not only those who agreed to repay, and a retailer has to try at least two ways of reaching you unless you acknowledge the first. A separate draft rule would ban retailers requiring documentary evidence of hardship. Submissions on that draft close on 22 October.

10 October 2026 9 primary sources, read 10 Oct 2026

The short answer

I am behind on my bill now. Do I wait for 2027? No. The Commission’s own release says In the meantime, customers seeking payment difficulty information should contact their energy retailer. The protections that exist today still apply.
Where does this apply? NSW, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania and the ACT, the five places the Commission says the national retail framework applies; it applies only partially in Victoria, which has its own payment difficulty code. The Commission says it aligned the final rule with that code where suitable.
What changes on 30 March 2027? Five things, in the table below. The one most likely to matter: a debt under the minimum disconnection amount protects you from disconnection whether or not you have agreed to repay it.
Will I have to prove I am struggling? Not if the draft rule is made as proposed. It would bar retailers from requiring documentary evidence of payment difficulties or hardship, from a proposed start of 10 December 2027.
Can I have a say? Yes. Written submissions on the draft go to the Commission through its website by 22 October 2026, project code RRC0074.

What changes on 30 March 2027

The final rule answers four requests the Australian Energy Regulator lodged on 19 December 2025, after its own review of how retailers treat customers who cannot pay. The Commission fast-tracked them and folded them into one rule change. Its release gives the reason: the number of residential customers with energy debt of 90 days or more is the highest in five years, on the regulator’s data, and around one-third of customers in debt were not getting adequate support through a payment plan or hardship program. The determination puts the first figure at around 2.3 per cent of residential customers, excluding hardship customers.

What	Until 29 March 2027	From 30 March 2027
A debt under the minimum disconnection amount	Protects you from disconnection for non-payment only if you have explicitly agreed to repay the debt.	Protects all customers, agreed or not. The words and the customer has agreed with the retailer to repay that amount come out of rule 116(1)(g).
Trying to reach you before disconnection	The retailer engages using one of the methods the rules list.	At least two methods, unless you acknowledge the first. Your preferred method must be one of them if you have told the retailer it. A call or message counts only if you answer or acknowledge it.
Who gets payment difficulty protections	The retail rules capture customers who self-identify as being in payment difficulty.	Also a residential customer the retailer believes is having repeated difficulty paying or needs payment assistance (rules 33 and 111).
What the retailer must tell you	No requirement to publish payment difficulty help on its website or to put it on reminder and disconnection warning notices.	A summary of its hardship policy, the help available and how to get it, and relevant government rebates and concessions: on its website, in plain language, and on reminder and disconnection warning notices.
When a disconnection counts as arranged	The rules do not clearly specify when a retailer is taken to have disconnected a customer.	At the time the retailer asks the distributor or metering coordinator to cut supply (new rule 107(6)).

Left column from the Commission’s account of the current rules in its final determination (pages iii, 16, 18, 20 and 22); right column from the amending rule itself, National Energy Retail Amendment (Streamlining payment difficulty protections) Rule 2026 No. 3, Schedule 1. Wording condensed by us; the rule numbers are the rule’s own.

The first row is the one with teeth. The rule protects a debt below an amount approved by the AER. The determination records, in a footnote, that the amount increased from $300 to $500 from 1 July 2026 after the regulator’s 2025 review. Until March 2027 that protection has a catch: it holds only if you have agreed to repay. The Commission’s reasoning for removing the catch is that disconnection costs can be significant and disproportionate to relatively small levels of debt. One retailer, Powershop, opposed the change in its submission, on the ground that retailers would carry more unpaid debt and other customers would pay for it through cross-subsidy, the determination records.

The contact rule rests on a finding the Commission cites from the Justice and Equity Centre: 47 per cent of customers who had been disconnected did not recall having any contact with their retailer prior to the disconnection. Under the new wording, a retailer is taken to have used its best endeavours to contact the customer if it has attempted to contact the customer by at least 2 methods of communication. The listed methods are in person, telephone, electronic means and post. Where a customer is affected by family violence, the rule says the retailer must use only the method already set under rule 76H.

The draft: no proof of hardship, and plans you can afford

The fifth request went through the Commission’s standard process, and on 10 September it published a draft determination and draft rule. Its centre is one sentence, a new rule 73:

A retailer must not require a hardship customer or a third party acting on behalf of a hardship customer to provide any documentary evidence of payment difficulties or hardship as a precondition to applying these Rules or the retailer's hardship policy.
Draft National Energy Retail Amendment (Strengthening standards for payment difficulty assistance) Rule 2026, draft rule 73. A note applies it to other residential customers in payment difficulty through rule 33(4).

It is narrower than “no paperwork ever”. The draft determination says retailers can still ask for other documents needed for other kinds of support, such as proof of home ownership for solar schemes or proof of concessions, because those are not proof of payment difficulty or hardship. And the Commission’s information sheet says the change aligns with most retailers’ current practice.

The second half of the draft is about payment plans. A retailer would have to offer a hardship customer a plan that the retailer reasonably considers is affordable for that customer, weighing what the customer, or someone acting for them, says they can afford, any arrears and their expected energy use over the next 12 months. It would have to review a plan when it becomes aware of a relevant change in your circumstances or when you ask, and could update it only with your explicit informed consent. The draft determination gives the reason in the regulator’s numbers: for January to March 2026, only 25 per cent of customers completed their hardship program, while 68 per cent were excluded for failing to meet their payment plan or for some other breach of the program’s requirements.

25%

of customers completed their hardship program.

AER data for January to March 2026, as cited in the AEMC draft determination

68%

were excluded for failing to meet their payment plan or for other non-compliance with the program.

Same period and source

42%

of disconnected customers had been on a payment plan they could not afford before being disconnected.

Justice and Equity Centre research, as cited in the AEMC draft determination

2.3%

of residential customers have energy debt of 90 days or more, excluding hardship customers, the highest level in five years.

AER data, as cited in the AEMC final determination

Each figure is the AEMC’s citation of another body’s data: the first three from its draft determination (pages ii and 18), the fourth from its final determination (page 18), described there as around 2.3 per cent. We have not read the underlying AER or Justice and Equity Centre reports.

The dates

The final rule and the draft run on different clocks. The Commission’s timetable lists the final determination on the draft for 3 December 2026; the draft proposes that its own changes would not start until 10 December 2027, to give the regulator time to finish its review of the retail guidelines and retailers time to change systems and training.

19 December 2025The AER lodges five rule change requests on payment difficulty.
18 June 2026Draft rule for four of them, fast-tracked as one package.
10 September 2026Final rule made for the four; draft rule published for the fifth, on documentary evidence and payment plans.
22 October 2026Submissions on the draft close.
3 December 2026Final determination on the draft, on the Commission’s published timetable.
30 March 2027The final rule commences, every part of it.
10 December 2027Proposed commencement of the draft rule, if it is made as drafted.

Dates from the AEMC rule change pages for RRC0075 and RRC0074, the final rule (clause 2), the RRC0075 information sheet and the RRC0074 draft determination (Table 1 and page iv), all read 10 October 2026. Dashed markers are dates still to come on a timetable or proposal, not decisions.

Who it does not reach

The rule is made under the national retail law as applied by South Australia, the ACT, NSW, Tasmania and Queensland. Western Australia and the Northern Territory are not on that list. And two groups of households sit outside even in those five places.

Covered NSW, Qld, SA, Tas, ACT

The five places the Commission says the National Energy Customer Framework applies, and where the rule is made under the retail law.

Victoria Own code

The Commission says Victorians are protected under the Victorian Energy Retail Code of Practice, and that the national framework applies there only partially.

Prepayment meters Outside the framework

The Commission says these protections often do not apply to, or are incompatible with, prepayment arrangements.

Scope from the final rule’s enacting words and the final determination (pages 7 and 18), read 10 October 2026.

The prepayment gap is not small for the people in it. The determination cites the First Nations Clean Energy Network and Original Power on First Nations households on prepayment meters: almost 9,000 households experiencing around 440,000 disconnection events in a single year across three states and territories. That is roughly 50 for each household on average, on our arithmetic. The Commission says it supports that report’s recommendations, but the rule it made does not reach those meters.

Our view

This is opinion, built on the documents above. The final rule is a real improvement at the sharp end, and modest everywhere else. The Commission says so itself: many of these changes are minor in nature and reflect alignment with current retailer practices. For a household, the change worth knowing is the first row of the table. Once it starts, a debt under the minimum disconnection amount can protect you from disconnection for non-payment whether or not you have agreed to repay it.

The part that goes to the heart of the problem the Commission describes is in the draft, and it is the slowest. The regulator’s figures it cites say only one in four customers completed their hardship program, and the research it cites says 42 per cent of disconnected customers had been on a plan they could not afford. A duty to offer a plan the retailer reasonably considers affordable addresses that directly. Proposed to start on 10 December 2027, it would arrive just under two years after the regulator asked for it (our arithmetic: 19 December 2025 to 10 December 2027). The Commission’s reasons, the regulator’s guideline review and retailer systems, are real, but they are reasons a household in arrears does not share. The draft is open: a submission that says so is exactly what the consultation is for.

The evidence ban matters less than its headline. By the Commission’s account most retailers already do not ask. It matters for the customers of those that do, and it is a good rule for that reason alone. Do not wait for either rule: if you are falling behind, ask your retailer for payment difficulty assistance now, and if it does not help, the energy ombudsman, whose contact details the rules require on a disconnection warning notice, is the next call.

Sources

Australian Energy Market Commission, New rule to deliver practical support for energy customers facing payment difficulty (media release, 10 September 2026, read 10 October 2026): the five-year high, the one-third assistance gap, the separate draft rule, the 30 March 2027 commencement, the 22 October 2026 submissions date and the advice to contact your retailer meanwhile.
Australian Energy Market Commission, Streamlining payment difficulty protections (RRC0075) (rule change page, read 10 October 2026): status completed, the four AER requests consolidated, and the documents including the 18 June 2026 draft.
Australian Energy Market Commission, Rule determination: Streamlining payment difficulty protections (PDF, 10 September 2026, read 10 October 2026): the 2.3 per cent figure excluding hardship customers (p. i and p. 18); the current rule on when disconnection is arranged (p. iii); the "minor in nature" sentence (p. vi); Victoria and the NECF jurisdictions (p. 7); the single listed contact method, the Justice and Equity Centre 47 per cent finding and the family violence clarification (p. 16); the current minimum disconnection amount condition, the $300 to $500 footnote, the prepayment meter scope and the First Nations figures (p. 18); Powershop's position and the "disproportionate" sentence (p. 19); the self-identify eligibility gap (p. 20); the website and notice information gap (p. 22).
Australian Energy Market Commission, National Energy Retail Amendment (Streamlining payment difficulty protections) Rule 2026 No. 3 (PDF, 6 pages, read 10 October 2026): the enacting jurisdictions, commencement on 30 March 2027 (clause 2), and Schedule 1 amendments to rules 33, 56, 107, 109, 110, 111 and 116.
Australian Energy Market Commission, Information sheet: Streamlining payment difficulty protections (PDF, 10 September 2026, 3 pages): the AER requests of 19 December 2025, the summary of changes and the 30 March 2027 commencement across all components.
Australian Energy Market Commission, Strengthening standards for payment difficulty assistance (RRC0074) (rule change page, read 10 October 2026): status open, the draft published 10 September 2026, submissions closing 22 October 2026, and the 18 June 2026 draft of the other four.
Australian Energy Market Commission, Draft rule determination: Strengthening standards for payment difficulty assistance (PDF, 10 September 2026, read 10 October 2026): the Justice and Equity Centre 42 per cent finding (p. ii); the proposed 10 December 2027 commencement (p. iv); Table 1, key dates including the 3 December 2026 final determination (p. vi); the home ownership and concession documents left outside the ban (p. 4 and p. 13); the 25 and 68 per cent hardship program figures (p. 18).
Australian Energy Market Commission, Draft National Energy Retail Amendment (Strengthening standards for payment difficulty assistance) Rule 2026 (PDF, 4 pages, read 10 October 2026): proposed commencement (clause 2), draft rules 72 and 73 and the rule 33(4) extension.
Australian Energy Market Commission, Information sheet: Strengthening standards for payment difficulty assistance (PDF, 10 September 2026, 3 pages): the submission date, the summary of the two proposals and the "most retailers' current practice" sentence.

Methodology. All nine documents were read on 10 October 2026 from the AEMC’s own pages and PDFs, with page numbers as printed in each determination. The comparison table condenses the Commission’s description of the current rules and the text of the amending rule; it is not a full statement of either. Figures the Commission cites from the AER, the Justice and Equity Centre and the First Nations Clean Energy Network and Original Power are attributed to the Commission’s citation, because we did not read those reports. The $500 minimum disconnection amount is as the determination records it; we did not read the AER’s own decision. The “roughly 50” and “just under two years” are our arithmetic. Powershop is named because its position is recorded in a public rule change determination. “Our view” is our analysis, honestly held, built on the sourced facts above and labelled as opinion. We will report the final determination on the draft rule, which the Commission’s timetable puts at 3 December 2026, and what it changes from the draft.

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