More than 100,000 New Zealanders can’t keep warm in their homes over winter as they struggle to afford heating and pay their power bills.
Which companies offer hardship discounts?
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Only a few power companies provide discounts for customers facing hardship, according to a survey conducted for this series by Common Grace.
Mercury said it excluded 135 households from the April 1 price increase and froze their prices. It supported about 2000 customers a month experiencing financial hardship. Globug, owned by Mercury, gave the same answer.
Contact has its “HandUp programme”, which it says gave individual payment options and discounted energy to customers in need. It said it also offered short-term energy credits for customers needing immediate relief, and full debt forgiveness to clear long-term, unmanageable debt.
“In 2024, this programme assisted 3500 households, and in the last year, almost $500k of support has been offered.”
Genesis, and now-defunct Frank, pointed to the Power Shout scheme, wherein 328,830 hours of free power were supplied to 4205 vulnerable customers.
Toast, a not-for-profit social retailer, has up to 300 customers who have been referred by its community partners specifically for discounted power.
“Toast provides them with all-year lower pricing than their previous retailer and also aims to discount their tariffs by 30% over winter months. They estimate these discounts will amount to $70,000 off standard Toast tariffs during winter 2025,” the company said.
The remaining companies that responded to the survey said they did not provide discounted power.
Meridian said, “In our experience, discounts are not the way to help people transition out of energy hardship.”
Meridian has its Energy Wellbeing Programme. It provides customers with budgeting support, in-home assessments and tailored support to make their homes healthier, easier and cheaper to heat.
“In some cases, this involves providing items like curtains, insulation, or heat pumps. With more than 2500 households already assisted, we have found this to be a far more sustainable solution.”
Pulse did not offer discounts for hardship: “Our priority is to keep electricity pricing as low as we can for all customers. This year, as an example, from 1 April we only flowed through changes in network services charges and did not change our energy rates.”
Nova said it did not offer discounts for hardship, preferring to work through its support teams.
Ecotricity did not offer discounted power, but was “committed to supporting customers in hardship by offering flexible payment options, working closely with them to manage arrears and connecting them with external support services where appropriate”.
Electric Kiwi pointed to its daily free hour of power. Pre-pay service Wise said it did not offer discounted power to people in hardship because that was difficult to define.
Switch Utilities said it did not offer hardship discounts because the issue was “wider than those in immediate hardship”.
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Christmas gifts stolen from parked car prompts warning over holiday break-ins
An Auckland man whose Christmas presents were stolen from his car on a quiet street is warning others not to repeat his mistake.
Police and the AA say opportunistic thieves are breaking into cars more frequently during the Christmas period.
Jeremy Rees, an RNZ staff member in Auckland, had packed his car full of gifts when he decided to visit a friend.
“Everyone had handed over presents and we had a couple of bags full of presents sitting in the back of the car,” he said.
“I decided it would be great to go around and see a friend, drop off some presents and say hello. My wife said to me, ‘Are you sure we should be taking this car?’ I said, ‘I’m sure it’ll be fine’.
“I think it was only 20 minutes outside their house, a very quiet street. It was light [outside]. We came out and my wife pointed out that someone had smashed the rear window, reached in and grabbed the presents, and headed away.
“It was a shock. It was a shock partly because of the Christmas presents and partly because my wife had been telling me, ‘Don’t do that’.”
AA Insurance head of motor claims Beau Paparoa said roadside staff were responding to smashed windows more often.
“We definitely see car break-ins starting to occur a lot more around this time of year. We’re often hearing from customers and some of our roadside teams that there’s definitely a bit more opportunistic theft happening,” he said.
“We’re putting that down to it being a busy time of year. Everyone’s out doing their Christmas shopping and there’s much more presence of gifts and valuables being visible in the car.”
He encouraged people to be careful and make sure valuables were hidden from view.
“In terms of any valuables, if you’ve done some Christmas shopping, or if generally you’ve got valuables in your car, try [to] keep them locked away or out of sight – in your boot if you can,” he said.
“Where you’re parking is possibly a good thing to think about. If you can afford to, don’t park on the street, but if you have to park on-street, make sure you park in well-lit areas.”
Police said it was not uncommon for Christmas presents to be stolen.
“The key is to remove any opportunity. This includes taking valuables or documents out of vehicles wherever possible,” a spokesperson said.
Rees said he wished he had followed that advice.
“I feel a bit stupid, to be absolutely honest. I read all of the things from police saying ‘don’t do this, don’t pack your car, don’t just leave it on the street’, and I did exactly the opposite and I paid the price.”
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Auckland Harbour Bridge summer works
NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi is carrying out essential maintenance on the Auckland Harbour Bridge this December and January. The southbound clip-on lanes will be closed (24/7) from 26 December to 5 January for road resurfacing. Night-time lane restrictions will be in place throughout the summer for recoating work on the bridge. Traffic will still be able to travel in both directions at all times.
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