On 18 June 2026, the Australian Energy Market Commission (AEMC) published a consultation paper to seek stakeholder feedback on the Strengthening standards for payment difficulty assistance rule change request from the Australian Energy Regulator (AER). Submissions to the consultation paper are due 30 July 2026.

The AER outlined, in its rule change request, that assistance provided under the current framework is often ineffective, places inappropriate expectations on customers and is provided in an inconsistent way across retailers. They also identified problems with payment plans failing because they are either not aligned with a customer's capacity to pay at the time they are first established or become unaffordable for some customers due to a change in their circumstances, which is not reflected in the plan.

The rule change request proposes the following amendments to the National Energy Retail Rules (NERR):

• Banning retailers from requiring documentary evidence as a precondition to providing payment difficulty assistance to customers experiencing payment difficulty or hardship.
• Strengthening protections to make payment plans more affordable by requiring:
  • retailers to consider any information or representations provided by the customer or a third party acting on behalf of the customer regarding what the customer can afford to pay in determining capacity to pay a payment plan
  • payment plans to be reviewed and updated in response to any available information about changes in a customer’s circumstances, including their capacity to pay, arrears and energy consumption needs.

We are seeking stakeholder feedback on the issues identified in the rule change request as well as the AER’s proposed solutions outlined above.  

Background

The rule change is one of five rule change requests submitted by the AER on 19 December 2025 that together seek changes to the NERR to improve and enhance existing requirements so customers experiencing payment difficulty are engaged early and effectively supported with assistance that is tailored to their individual circumstances.  

The remaining four rule changes, which are being progressed via the streamlining payment difficulty protections rule change package are:

• Clarifying disconnection protections
• Strengthening minimum disconnection protections
• Improving payment assistance information
• Simplifying the eligibility framework for payment difficulty protections

The Commission has decided to fast track these four requests on the basis that the rule changes were developed through extensive consultation by a market body (The AER). The requests have also been consolidated into a single rule change request titled streamlining payment difficulty protections. A draft determination and draft rule was published for the streamlining payment difficulty protections rule change on 18 June 2026 and can be found here.

All five rule change requests stem from the AER’s Review of payment difficulty protections in the National Energy Customer Framework (the Review). The AER findings report was published on 15 May 2025 and was presented to the Energy and Climate Change Ministerial Council (ECMC), in December 2025, outlining 13 identified opportunities for reform.  

We note the ECMC is considering broader reforms proposed in the AER’s final report, in particular, the consideration of a single, consistent definition for customers experiencing payment difficulty.