Regulating with consumer vulnerability in mind

Our ‘Getting to fair’ strategy was released in August 2021. The strategy gives us a roadmap to address consumers' experience of vulnerability and break down the barriers they can face.

The aim of the strategy is to create fairer more equitable access for all Victorians, regardless of which of our regulated services they use.

All customers benefit from this approach, but particularly people who may be struggling with changes in circumstances or who are enduring difficulties. During difficult times, the inability to access essential services, like clean drinking water, affordable lighting and heating, sustainable council rates, should not be a cause for further difficulty. 

In the two years since 'Getting to fair' was launched, we have completed 21 out of the 33 actions in the strategy.

This includes a review of the family violence provisions in the water industry standards and the implementation of the energy payment difficulty framework, updated water customer service codes to strengthen consumer support and protections, and expert-led industry resources to support businesses to engage with consumers who may be experiencing family violence. 

The strategy has helped the commission keep the experiences, needs and expectations of consumers experiencing vulnerability at the centre of our work program and regulatory decisions.

Yet, there is still work to be done, and we will continue to work closely with our regulated businesses, government, community groups and the wider community to implement the remaining actions.

You can read more about the work we have undertaken so far in our 'Getting to fair' progress report.

‘Getting to fair’ is built around three key objectives:

• working with consumers
• working with regulated businesses
• working on ourselves:

Objective 1: Consumers experiencing vulnerability are supported to better understand and exercise their rights and can influence our work.

Objective 2: Services we regulate are more responsive, inclusive and accessible.

Objective 3: The commission is more responsive, inclusive and accessible as an organisation.

Each objective is supported by a series of actions to be further developed and implemented over the next three years.

We released our draft strategy for public feedback on 6 May 2021. We received 25 submissions, from the energy, water and community sectors, and one comment through our feedback form. Overall, submissions were supportive of the need to develop a strategy addressing consumer vulnerability. Submissions covered topics including:

• The definition of vulnerability and appropriate terminology.
• Partnerships and relationships with relevant government departments, industry, community sector and other regulators.
• The consultation process to develop the draft strategy.
• Accessible communication. 
• Existing assistance and best practice approaches.
• The measures of success for the initiatives.
• Feedback on specific initiatives, including the review of the Payment Difficulty Framework.

Our final strategy is grounded in what learnt during our 18-month research, engagement and capability building program. It was shaped by what we heard during consultation on the draft.

We undertook an 18-month research, engagement and capability building program which has guided the development of our ‘Getting to fair’ strategy.

Research to capture experiences and emerging data trends

To help us understand the experience of vulnerability in recent times we :

• interviewed community workers and volunteers on consumer experiences in the energy market (conducted by the Consumer Policy Research Centre)
• collected data on the systemic factors affecting consumers in the current environment (compiled by ACIL Allen).

Engagement process

Our ongoing engagement is intended to build strong relationships with stakeholders and establish trust and to provide assurance that we will act appropriately on issues related to consumer vulnerability.

Engagement included:

• roundtable meetings every two months with community agencies on the social and economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
• a reference group made up consumer and community representative organisations to test our ideas and provide advice at each stage of the process. 
• a deliberative panel of 37 people representative of our community to provide recommendation of what areas we should be focusing on, as well as to provide a definition of ‘consumer wellbeing’ to help guide us.
• discussions with industry in the form of roundtables and cross-sector workshops to share insights and examples of better practice approaches to consumer support.
• a range of activities with staff at the commission to ensure all staff understand the problems the strategy is seeking to address, and in formulating options that to help achieve meaningful change.

Thought leadership and building capability

Our strategy will be supported by frameworks for engaging with consumers experiencing vulnerability to build our engagement capability and share better practice:

• Guidance for working with victim-survivors of family violence, developed in partnership with Domestic Violence Victoria. It will inform the next stages of our work on family violence, which will require direct engagement with victim-survivors.
• Guidance for sensitive and appropriate engagement with consumers experiencing vulnerability, developed in partnership with the University of Melbourne’s Social Equity Institute. This includes a tool to assess the accessibility of online communications, and a roadmap for engagement for the vulnerability strategy.

We are committed to growing our capabilities and demonstrating thought leadership. We will continue to share insights and build knowledge in a collaborative and inclusive way.

We received 25 submissions, from the energy sector, water sector and community sector, and one comment through our feedback form. Overall, submissions were supportive of the need to develop a strategy addressing consumer vulnerability. Submissions covered topics including: 

• The definition of vulnerability and appropriate terminology. 
• Partnerships and relationships with relevant government departments, industry, community sector and other regulators. 
• The consultation process to develop the draft strategy. 
• Accessible communication.  
• Existing assistance and best practice approaches. 
• The measures of success for the initiatives. 
• Feedback on specific initiatives, including the review of the Payment Difficulty Framework.