CUBE Voice & Data Payment Assistance Policy

Policy Summary

CUBE Voice & Data is committed to supporting individuals facing financial hardship by offering flexible payment assistance options, ensuring compliance with the Telecommunications (Financial Hardship) Industry Standard 2024.

Statement of Intent

Our goal is to prioritise keeping customers experiencing financial hardship connected and disconnection will only be used as a measure of last resort.

This policy explains:

  1. What Financial Hardship is;
  2. Eligibility for Financial Hardship Assistance;
  3. What Assistance we Provide;
  4. How to Contact Us and Apply for Financial Hardship Assistance;
  5. How we process and Manage Applications for Financial Hardship Assistance;
  6. Other Options for Getting Support.

 

  1. Financial Hardship

Financial Hardship is a situation when a customer is willing to pay a debt but does not currently have the financial capacity to do so according to their contractual obligations. Financial hardship can be a short or long term situation.

You have a right to apply for short term financial hardship assistance and long term financial hardship assistance. The outcome of your application will be in accordance with this policy and the laws that apply to it.  Using this policy, including making an application, is free of charge.

You may be in financial hardship when you:

  • have more than 2 consecutive overdue bills;
  • a total of 3 overdue bills in the previous 6 month period; or
  • have arrears of more than $200.

 

Could you identify as a financial hardship customer?

 You may be in financial hardship if you indicate any of the following:

  1. You mention that you are having difficulty paying a bill;
  2. You inform us that you wish to know about options to assist you to reduce or manage spending;
  3. You inform us that you need help paying a bill;
  4. You mention you are in any of the following situations:
  • personal or household illness;
  • unemployment;
  • low or insufficient income, including reduced access to income;
  • being a victim survivor of domestic or family violence;
  • a death in the family;
  • a change in personal or family circumstances;
  • a natural disaster;
  • unexpected events or unforeseen changes that have impacted your income or expenditure; or
  • other reasonable causes.

5. You use any language that indicates you are having financial difficulties, including any of the following, or similar, terms to describe your financial situation:

  • money problems,
  • difficulty, struggling, trouble, issues, problems,
  • low income, cost of living or pressure.

6. You otherwise indicate that you are experiencing financial hardship.

 

  1. Eligibility

You may be eligible for payment assistance if you can demonstrate:

  1. An inability to meet your financial obligations due to circumstances listed above.
  2. A willingness to engage in open communication regarding your financial situation.

 

  1. What Assistance We Provide

 We offer 9 Payment Assistance Options :

  • temporarily postponing, extending or deferring the time for paying a bill;
  • discounting a bill charge;
  • payment plans which are tailored to meet your ability to pay;
  • restrictions;
  • removing non-essential features of a telecommunications product at no cost;
  • transferring you to a different telecommunications product that better suits your circumstances;
  • Offer a free non-automatic payment method;
  • Offer an alternate payment schedule i.e. weekly or fortnightly; or
  • Change monthly due date

 

  1. How to Contact Us and Submit an Application

We offer various ways to contact us or to speak directly with personnel who are authorised to deal with applications for financial hardship assistance:

You can contact us regarding financial hardship issues as follows:

Name: Trent Goodall
‍Position: Managing Director
‍Phone: 1300 884 884 | 8.30am – 5pm Monday – Friday

Email: supportme@cubevoice.com.au – (all hours – processed during business hours)
‍Postal: ‍P.O Box 552, Hamilton, NSW, 2303 – (all hours – processed during business hours)

The Financial Hardship Officer can provide more information and a copy of our policy. You can also access it from our web site.

Do you need a spoken language interpreter?

If you need a translation of this document, ethnic.com.au is a commercial translation service that can assist (fees apply). Call 1300 855 221.

Do you need the National Relay Service?

If you are deaf, hard of hearing, or have a speech impairment, you can also contact us through the National Relay Service (NRS) on 1800 555 677.

 

  1. How We Process and Assess Your Application

Summary of our Process

  1. Initial Assessment: Individuals must contact our customer service team to discuss their situation with the appropriate personnel using any of the above methods.
  2. Documentation: Applicants are asked to complete a ‘Payment Assistance Form’ and depending on their circumstances may be required to provide documentation to support their claim of financial hardship (e.g., pay slips, medical certificates).
  3. Acknowledgement: We will notify you that we have received your application.
  4. Decision: Applications will be reviewed promptly, and individuals will be notified of the outcome within 10 days via the customers’ provided email address.

To process a financial hardship enquiry or application, we first ask for a Payment Assistance Application which identifies you, your account and other basic information.

You must send it, and any other supporting documentation we require, to the email address or postal address, addressed to ‘Financial Hardship Officer, CUBE Voice & Data’ or you may bring it to our offices at 52 Tudor Street, Hamilton, NSW 2303.

We may require further documentation, when

  1. You are seeking long term assistance and either:
  • the amount to be repaid is more than $1000;
  • you have been a customer for less than 2 months; or
  • we reasonably believe there is a possibility of fraud.

Depending on the nature and circumstances of your claim we may ask for some or all of the following documents:

  • evidence that you’ve lost employment;
  • evidence that you have consulted a financial counsellor;
  • a statutory declaration signed by you;
  • a statutory declaration signed by someone familiar with your circumstances;
  • a medical certificate.

 

Our assessment of your application will be based on the information you provide or other data available to us.

If the information you provide is insufficient for us to complete the assessment, we will inform you of any additional details needed. If the requested information is not provided, we may be unable to proceed with the assessment. Providing false or incomplete information could result in the cancellation of any hardship arrangements.

Please note that customers seeking short term assistance or who are a victim survivor of domestic or family violence are not required to provide evidence to support their application and (if required) may choose the ‘self-declaration’ option outlined on the application form.

We try to be flexible, since there are many different possible circumstances. But generally:

  • We will check that the amount involved is not disputed. If it is, our Complaints Policy applies instead.
  • We’ll assess whether the application meets the definition for financial hardship.
  • We’ll consider if non-payment of amounts is reasonable in all the circumstances.
  • We’ll consider whether your reason for being unable to pay falls into those relevant under our Financial Hardship Policy.
  • We’ll consider whether a financial hardship arrangement could assist you.
  • We’ll consider an appropriate arrangement under our Policy and the Telecommunications Consumer Protections C628:2019 Incorporating Variation no. 1/2022 and propose it to you. Where possible and appropriate, we will provide you with flexible repayment options to meet your individual circumstances.
  • We will complete the assessment within 5 business days of receiving a complete application and will advise you within 2 business days of completing the assessment of the application.

The proposed financial hardship arrangement has no effect until you accept it.

If you do not accept a proposed arrangement within 14 days, it is no longer open for acceptance. (But if you do not accept in that time for good reason, we will not unreasonably refuse to extend the proposal.)

If it becomes clear to us at any time that you do not meet the criteria for arrangement or assistance, we will inform you immediately.

Your Rights & Obligations

If we enter a financial hardship arrangement:

  • You, and we must comply with the agreed financial hardship arrangement.
  • We will give you written details of the arrangement.
  • We will take all reasonable steps to keep your telecommunications service connected, having regard to the essential nature of carriage services and your individual circumstances.
  • We will not pursue credit management action over a debt while a financial hardship arrangement covering that debt is in place and you are complying with it.
  • You must promptly advise us if your circumstances change during the term of the financial hardship arrangement, and we will review your financial hardship arrangement within 5 business days.
  • If you have not complied with an agreed term of an arrangement for financial hardship assistance, we will promptly contact you to discuss the matter and offer to review the arrangement.

 

If You Don’t Comply with the Agreement

If you have not met your obligations under the arrangement for financial hardship assistance and we have taken steps to review the arrangement and if we are unable to contact you; or if we believe you are unable or unwilling to pay your debt; or the arrangement is unable to be completed, then credit management action (which includes restriction, suspension or disconnection) will be taken as a measure of last resort.

We will provide evidence that we have:

  • Made at least 3 separate attempts to contact you,
  • with each attempt on a separate business day,
  • over a total period of not more than 10 calendar days,
  • using at least 2 separate methods of communication,
  • with at least one of those methods being in writing.

  1. Other Options for Getting Support?

If you are not satisfied with our decision, you can:

  • Ask us for a review of your application. You can access our Complaint Handling Process It explains in detail how to make a complaint, and how we process complaints.
  • If you are still not happy, you can make a complaint to the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO).
  • Making a complaint as set out above does not prevent you from agreeing to an arrangement with us for financial hardship assistance.

Download: The Complaints form from the TIO website: tio.com.au
Phone: 1800 062 058
Email, Fax or Post
Email: tio@tio.com.au
Fax: 1800 630 614
Post your completed complaints form to: PO Box 276, Collins Street West, VIC 8007

Need Further Assistance?

You can also contact the TIO for further information or financial counselling services.

To find and contact a financial counselling service that is available and suitable for you, visit the Australian Government information page at https://moneysmart.gov.au/managing-debt/financial-hardship

 

To download the Payment Assistance Form click HERE