Power survey finds cost concerns
Our latest energy providers survey found a significant number of households have had trouble paying their power bills.
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Eighteen percent of consumers had run into financial difficulties paying for power in the past year.
Fourteen percent had overdue fees added to their account because they couldn’t pay on time while 13% had borrowed from family or friends to pay their bills.
Disconnections for non-payment have also started to rise again. Last year, 25,317 people had their power disconnected because of unpaid bills, up from 19,106 in 2015.
We will be providing the results of our research to the government’s electricity pricing review.
Survey findings
| Home heating costs | Survey responses[bar] |
|---|---|
| I can heat my home comfortably for a reasonable price | 47% |
| I can heat my home comfortably but feel I have to pay too much | 38% |
| My home's not as warm as I'd like – the cost of energy means I've cut back on heating | 15% |
| How concerned are you about your household power costs? | Survey responses[bar] |
|---|---|
| Very concerned | 32% |
| Concerned | 33% |
| Neutral | 14% |
| Not concerned | 21% |
In the past 12 months ...
- 18% experienced difficulty paying their bill
- 17% missed paying by the due date
- 14% had overdue fees added to their bill
- 13% borrowed from family or friends to pay the bill
- 8% took out a loan to pay the bill
GUIDE TO THE TABLE OUR DATA are from a nationally representative survey of 1525 New Zealanders, aged 18 and over, carried out in May 2018.
Which energy provider is best?
As part of our survey, we also asked energy customers how satisfied they are with their provider.
