cost of living Archives - Page 7 of 7 - Consumers' Federation of Australia

30 August , 2023

ASIC Open Letter to Lenders: “Ensuring that lenders support consumers experiencing financial hardship is a priority for ASIC”

https://asic.gov.au/about-asic/news-centre/find-a-media-release/2023-releases/23-235mr-as-cost-of-living-pressures-persist-asic-calls-on-lenders-to-support-customers-in-financial-hardship/

23 August , 2023

New Gas Market Code Takes Effect

The ACCC has today published compliance and enforcement guidelines on the new Gas Market Code.

The Code commenced on 11 July this year with a two-month transition period for the gas industry to prepare for some of the new obligations that the Code establishes. The ACCC will begin enforcing the Code from mid-September 2023.

15 August , 2023

Inquiry into Price Gouging and Unfair Pricing Practices Launched by the ACTU

The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) has recently announced an inquiry into price gouging and unfair pricing practices to be chaired by Professor Allan Fells AO.

The announcement comes just after the OECD released a research report which found that “historically high corporate profits”, rather than wages, was the leading cause for inflation in Australia. With the OECD suggesting corporate profits may account for an average of 51% of inflation in recent years.

10 August , 2023

Governments Called to ‘Step Up’ to Ensure a Consumer-Focused Energy Future

Energy Consumers Australia (ECA) newly released report, Stepping Up: A Smoother Pathway to Decarbonising Homes (available here), has called on local, state/territory, and federal governments to collectively ‘step up’ and ensure everyone in Australia is supported and enabled to go all-electric. The policy report is based on research by CSIRO and Dynamic Analysis which has increased our understanding on the shared and individual costs of electrification for consumers.

2 August , 2023

Regulator acts to improve grocery unit pricing in the UK

“To assist consumers with the cost of living crisis and the high rate of grocery price inflation, the ACCC and the Federal Government should follow the UK’s example and take action now to substantially improved the quality of the unit pricing provided by Australian grocery retailers and to improve the Grocery Unit Pricing Code administered by the ACCC.”

28 July , 2023

Record Number of Financial Complaints for Second Year in a Row

“We are deeply concerned by the volume of complaints consumers are having to escalate to AFCA,” chief ombudsman David Locke says. “It’s not fair on consumers and not good for business. We need to see a significant improvement from firms.”

20 July , 2023

Buy Now Pay Later – Debt Traps and Essentials

Financial Counselling Australia’s latest report, ‘Small Loans, Big Problems’, has highlighted once more the need for urgent reform to the Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL), especially with the continued cost of living crisis and with many still feeling the impact of the 2022 floods.

20 June , 2023

Australian Energy Regulator Outlines its 2023-24 Compliance and Enforcement Priorities

The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) has outlined its 2023–2024 Compliance and Enforcement Priorities to protect energy consumers and keep the energy system stable and secure during the transition.

19 June , 2023

Knock to Stay Connected: National Customer Code Welcomed by Consumer Groups

Consumer groups and the financial counselling sector have welcomed the launch of a new customer code for the energy sector.

The Knock to Stay Connected customer code requires network companies to visit people at risk of disconnection and encourages them to outline the support and referral services available if the customer is having payment difficulties, with the aim of keeping them connected.

Image 2 May , 2023

Consumers Want (and need) More from Telcos

“Cost of living issues aren’t going away for the foreseeable future, so it’s particularly concerning that over 40% of the Australian adult population are unaware that they can contact their telco provider for help managing their bills. This research shows that it is imperative that financial hardship policies are promoted by telcos and made easily accessible on their websites,”

Image 27 March , 2023

Queensland Consumers Association Makes Submission to Senate Cost of Living Inquiry

The Queensland Consumers Association has made a submission to the Senate Select Committee on the Cost of Living which is inquiring into: the cost of living pressures facing Australians; the Government’s fiscal policy response to the cost of living; ways to ease cost of living pressures through the tax and transfer system; measures to ease…