We are here to help!
Under this policy “Financial Hardship” means a circumstance where:
(i) You are unable to discharge the financial obligations owed by you under your Customer Contract or otherwise discharge the financial obligations owed by you to a Supplier, due to illness, unemployment or other reasonable cause; and
(ii) You believe that you will be able to discharge those obligations if the relevant payment arrangements or other arrangements relating to the supply of Telecommunications Products by the Supplier to you are changed.
We are here to help. We will work with you to help you respond to financial difficulty, whether temporary or long-term. We are committed to helping customers facing financial hardship maintain telecommunications access and working with you to find a sustainable solution. Any help we can give will depend on your individual circumstances and we provide help on a case-by- case basis.
The goal of our Financial Hardship Policy is to prioritise keeping customers experiencing financial hardship connected. Disconnection will only be used as a measure of last resort.
Financial Hardship involves circumstances where you are unable to pay bills, rather than those circumstances where you are merely unwilling to do so. Financial Hardship can arise in a variety of circumstances. Financial Hardship can be of either short or long-term duration.
Financial Hardship can arise due to a number of factors, some of which include:
(i) Loss of employment by you or a member of your family;
(ii) Family breakdown;
(iii) Where you or one of your family members suffers an illness, including physical incapacity, hospitalisation or mental illness;
(iv) A death in your family;
(v) Where you are abusing the service;
(vi) Where someone other than you is abusing the service, leaving you unable to pay the account;
(vii) Natural disaster;.
(viii) Being the victim of domestic and family violence.
When you are facing Financial Hardship you should:
(i) Make contact with us by telephone, post or email – see below for contact details,; and/or
(ii) Seek professional assistance from a qualified financial counselling service such as Financial Counselling Australia (www.financialcounsellingaustralia.org.au or 1800 007 007).
If you contact us regarding a potential Financial Hardship our specially trained staff will assist you. Casphone Mobile may refer you in the first instance to a specialised financial counsellor.
Customers have the right to apply for financial hardship assistance.
In order for us to consider providing you with financial assistance in circumstances of Financial Hardship you will, having made initial contact with us, need to make an application. We will explain the application process to anyone who makes contact with us regarding Financial Hardship and assist them in the application process.
To assist Casphone Mobile in assessing an application for financial assistance under the Financial Hardship Policy, you will be required to provide Casphone Mobile with your customer account details and any other information required by Casphone Mobile to identify you as the account holder of the service. Some other information may also be required including:
(i) Your income and asset details;:
(ii) Documentation in support of the information provided to Casphone Mobile, such as your bank statements, a death certificate, correspondence from a relevant government agency or correspondence from your medical practitioner confirming your illness; and/or
(iii) Any other information that Casphone Mobile may reasonably require to verify your circumstances.
We will limit the information we may ask you to provide to that which is relevant to our assessment. We want it to be as simple as possible for you to apply for financial assistance under our Financial Hardship Policy.
Casphone Mobile will not discuss any financial assistance or your personal information with someone other than you unless you have authorised us to discuss your affairs with the individual or group.
Casphone Mobile will assess any application by you for Financial Hardship assistance in a fair, reasonable and prompt manner. A final decision will be made about any application for assistance within 7 working days of you providing all material required by Casphone Mobile in order to assess the application.
If you do not provide the information required by Casphone Mobile, an assessment of your application for Financial Hardship assistance will not proceed.
If your circumstances change after an application for Financial Hardship assistance has been made, you must promptly inform Casphone Mobile.
If you provide information that is false or misleading any Financial Hardship assistance offered by Casphone Mobile to you may be immediately withdrawn.
Any agreed financial arrangement agreed between you and Casphone Mobile that is intended to deal with your Financial Hardship must be based on the principle that any repayments made by you should be sufficient to cover the expected future use of the service as well as reducing your existing debt to an acceptable level. In other words, we will not allow you to increase your debt to Casphone Mobile under any Financial Hardship assistance arrangement.
To assist in achieving this outcome you and Casphone Mobile may agree on management of your service, for example by:
(i) Placing spend controls on your service;
(ii) Limiting your access to certain call or usage types (for example premium services) or to the service generally;
(iii) Implementing low cost interim options until you can continue with original payments;
(iv) Temporarily postponing or deferring payments (for a longer period than would typically be offered to Customers requesting an extension of Financial Hardship arrangements);
(v) Transferring you from a ‘post-paid’ service to a ‘pre-paid’ service;
(vi) Waiving late payment fees;
(vii) Waiving cancellation fees;
(viii) Disconnection of Service (last resort measure).
Any arrangement entered into with you may include one or more methods of reducing service costs and will be personal and specific to your individual circumstances.
You will not be eligible for a Financial Hardship Arrangement in circumstances where you have chosen to transfer all of your services to another provider but still have a debt with Casphone Mobile.
If we enter into a Financial Hardship arrangement with you, we will provide you, within 7 working days of us entering into that arrangement, with the following information in writing:;
(i) Your rights and obligations under the arrangement (including, without limitation, that you have an obligation to promptly advise us if your circumstances change during the term of the arrangement;
(ii) The Credit Management arrangements as provided for under paragraph (h) below; and
(iii) the duration of the arrangement or of the review date of the arrangement.
In addition to the above, you may request that we give you the details of the Financial Hardship arrangement in writing. Where you make such a request, we will comply with it within 7 working days.
Casphone Mobile will cease credit management activities against you whilst any Financial Hardship assistance is being considered or is in place, so long as you comply with your obligations under the Financial Hardship assistance and/or arrangement.
Casphone Mobile will take reasonable steps to contact you prior to recommencing credit management activities.
If you are dissatisfied with the outcome of our decision in relation to your financial hardship application you may notify us of a complaint in which case our complaints policy would apply. You can find the complaints policy here:
https://www.casphonemobile.com.au/policies/complaints-policy/ or ask us for a copy.
Also, you can raise a Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) complaint for external dispute resolution. Find out more information on the TIO website tio.com.au/complaints or call the TIO on 1800 062 058 (Monday – Friday, 8.00am – 8.00pm AEST).
Making a complaint does not prevent you from agreeing to an arrangement for financial hardship assistance.
The services described in this Financial Hardship Policy are free of charge for customers to use.
There are different ways you can apply for support:
By Phone
Financial Hardship Enquiries: 1300 001 240 – Option 1
Hours of Operation: Monday to Friday: 9.00am to 6.00pm (AEST)
By Chat
Visit casphonemobile.com.au and click on the ‘Chat with us’ box, located bottom right-hand side of the page