The Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) has announced a moratorium on cutting of services for those who are in arrears with their bills effective from December 1st 2023 until January 31st 2024.
A six month moratorium will also be put in place for those who are categorised as vulnerable from the first of October until the end of March.
Those who are categorised as vulnerable and are registered as being critically dependent on electrically-powered assistive devices are protected from disconnection from gas and electrical supply for this period.
Longer moratoriums are also being considered however there are fears that this could lead to a substantial build up of arrears causing increased hardship when the moratorium is lifted.
Consumer Protection
In August last year in anticipation of the winter season CRU Chairwoman Aoife MacEvilly said, “The CRU is acutely aware of the significant challenges that all customers have been and will be facing in the context of increasing energy costs this winter.”
“While the current measures provide a high level of protection for all customers, our focus was to enhance protection and security for the customers in greatest difficulty, including vulnerable customers, customers in debt and customers on financial hardship prepayment meters.”
“These requirements will remain in place for all suppliers subject to future CRU reviews, with the first of these reviews to be undertaken in summer 2023. I would like to acknowledge the support of our Customer Stakeholder Group and suppliers in developing these measures,” she said.
The CRU says it sets out the “minimum service requirements including customer protection measures that energy suppliers must adhere” to in their dealings with energy customers in the CRU Supplier Handbook.
“These rules” it says, “are in place to ensure that customers experience a high standard of protection when interacting with energy suppliers,”
“In developing the new package of customer protection measures, the CRU, working with customer representative groups, energy suppliers and network operators, conducted a review of the existing Supplier Handbook to identify and address any existing requirements that could be enhanced or new requirements that could be included to further protect customers facing higher energy prices,”