Family and Domestic Violence Policy

Download a PDF version of the policy here

1. Purpose

This Family and Domestic Violence (Customer) Policy is designed to support customers experiencing Domestic Violence, including Family Violence and Elder Abuse resulting in energy affordability issues. The approach and directives outlined in this document highlight the manner in which Aurora Energy’s obligation to our customers is directed and managed. Management implements this through subsidiary procedures, processes and supporting infrastructure.

Complementary to this Policy is the Your Energy Support (YES) Program Policy. This Policy explains in clearly understood terms how Aurora Energy treats customers experiencing energy affordability issues and also meets all requirements set out in the AER Customer Hardship Policy Guidelines (Guidelines).  In addition, Aurora Energy publishes a customer facing website that outlines key information for customers who are experiencing Family or Domestic Violence and access to this Policy.

2. Support for Customers impacted by Family and Domestic Violence

Aurora Energy prides itself on providing a specialised service to assist customers experiencing vulnerability that results in energy affordability issues.

All customers impacted by Family and Domestic Violence will be supported by:

• treating customers in a fair and responsible manner, taking into account all their circumstances;

• dedicated support from our YES team to focus on assisting customers affected by Family and Domestic Violence;

• offered entry to the YES program or payment plan support;

• ensure customers are provided all relevant assistance available to them in a timely manner; and

• providing clear information about the assistance Aurora Energy can provide, such as:

  • priority move in connections;

  • dedicated account management through the YES team;

  • Bill Support (Fee waivers and deferrals where applicable);

  • Hardship, YES program support; and

  • short-term and long-term Payment plans.

3. Referral Process

Aurora Energy understands that customers will not always contact Aurora Energy directly for support but will seek support from external support services.  Aurora Energy has put in place the following referral processes to ensure all contact points are captured:

• customer Self-identification;

• internal Aurora Energy Identification; and

• External Referral program for support services and organisations.

4. Identification of Family and Domestic Violence

Aurora Energy takes all customer claims of Family and Domestic Violence on face value with no evidence required to be provided with support.

5. Retrospective Support

Retrospective support will be offered to customers for up to 6 months from the time they identified as experiencing Family and Domestic Violence.

6. Staff Training

Our staff are committed to supporting you, our customers, this includes ongoing professional development for frontline staff to ensure appropriate skills are provided and embedded, this includes:

• • how to identify customers experiencing Family and Domestic Violence;

  • treatment of immediate risk scenarios;

  • annual professional development (PD) training such as internal and external training exercises for frontline staff; and

  • all training content reviewed annually (or as legislation or regulatory changes are released) and communicated to relevant staff in the annual PD training.

Community Welfare Organisations

We will continue to forge strong ties with the community.  In partnership with community organisations, we will conduct sessions to share our knowledge and to encourage community organisations to share this information with their membership.

7. External Website

Aurora Energy’s customer facing website provides the following key information to our customers.

• How Family and Domestic Violence may present in its many forms such as but not limited to:

  • Emotional abuse

  • Psychological abuse

  • Sexual abuse

  • Elder abuse

  • Threatening or coercive behaviour

  • Financial Abuse

  • Stalking

  • Physical violence

• Family and Domestic Violence (Customer) Policy (this policy)

• Authorised agent risks, including what access authorised agents have access to, so victims of family and domestic violence are aware what they need to do should they need to remove them.

• How we support our customers

  • information about the dedicated YES program including phone and online contact;

  • how we handle customers account information; and

  • security of personal information.

 

External support contacts such as:

Support Service	Contact Number
Immediate threat	000
National 1800 RESPECT line	1800 737 732
Tasmanian DHHS Family Violence Counselling and Support Service	1800 608 122
The Elder Abuse Hotline	1800 441 196
Legal Aid Commission Tasmania	1300 366 611
Women's Legal Services Tasmania	(03) 6231 9466
Mensline Australia	1300 789 978
Huon Domestic Violence Service (HDVS)	(03) 6264 2222
Yemaya womens support service	(03)6334 0305
Anglicare - Relationship Abuse of an Intimate Nature (RAIN)	1800 243 232

 

8. Accessing Information about the Family and Domestic Violence (Customer) Policy

As part of our continuing focus to assist our customers we will provide information on Family and Domestic Violence through the following forums:

• Aurora Energy’s website (www.auroraenergy.com.au);

• all information given to community welfare organisations; and

• phone call interactions.

We are committed to providing information regarding Family and Domestic Violence in a way that meets your needs. If you have a contact method that works best for you (phone, SMS, e-mail or post), let us know and we will always use that method in the first instance. There may be some times, like an emergency, where we need to use a different method.

Literacy and Numeracy

We recognise that a number of customers experiencing financial difficulty may also struggle with literacy and numeracy. We will communicate with you in a way that takes into account your needs and provides the information you need in the easiest way possible for you.

Hearing Impaired Services

If you are deaf or having a hearing impairment, you can contact us through the National Relay Service using one of the following relay call numbers:

• Speak and listen users can call 1300 555 727

• TTY users can call 133 677

Remote or Indigenous Communities

We recognise the challenges faced by some remote or indigenous communities and we will work with indigenous elders and community leaders to ensure the same level of access as all other customers.

Linguistically Diverse Backgrounds

We are committed to providing services to people from linguistically diverse backgrounds, and to provide access to support.  We will work with community organisations, and will have access to interpreters to ensure that customers from non-English-speaking households are provided a quality service.

If you have difficulty with English, an interpreter service is available, at no cost to you, on 131 450.

 

German

Für Kunden, die Schwierigkeiten haben, Englisch zu verstehen, steht unter der Nummer 131 450 ein kostenloser Dolmetscherdienst zur Verfügung.

Italian

Se un cliente ha difficoltà con l'inglese, c' è un servizio interpreti a disposizione, gratuito per i clienti, al numero 131 450.

Korean

영어사용에 어려움이 있는 고객을 위해 무료 통역서비스를 제공하고 있습니다. 131 450번으로 연락주시기 바랍니다.

Arabic

إذا كان العميل لديه صعوبة في اللغة الإنجليزية، فإن هناك خدمة ترجمة فورية متاحة للعميل مجانًا على الرقم 450 131.

Chinese

如果客户使用英语存在障碍，请致电131 450，这里可为客户提供免费的口译服务。

Greek

Εάν κάποιος πελάτης δυσκολεύεται με την αγγλική γλώσσα, υπάρχει δωρεάν υπηρεσία διερμηνείας, στο τηλέφωνο 131 450.

 

9. Complaints 

We work to resolve complaints at your first point of contact. If this is not possible, we will escalate to our Customer Advocacy team.

To make a complaint, you can phone 1800 80 0753, or via our website at www.auroraenergy.com.au. Our Complaints Management Policy is also available on our website.

If you are unhappy with the outcome of the enquiry into your complaint, you can contact the Energy Ombudsman, an independent, free service on 1300 76 6725 or via their website www.energyombudsman.tas.gov.au.

10. Privacy 

We value your privacy and we are bound by the Privacy Act. We will protect your personal information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles. These principles govern how we can collect, use, hold and disclose your personal information.

Full details of our Privacy Policy can be viewed at www.auroraenergy.com.au.

 

11. Publication

This Policy is approved for Aurora Energy’s external website.  

Approved by the Chief Executive Officer on 5 October 2022.