Vinnies calls for more support to help those struggling

There are growing calls for more financial support for families on the back of new data that shows significant price hikes across the country.

Transcript

00:00 The latest Tariff Tracker report by St. Vincent de Paul's looks at both gas and electricity

00:06 bills up until July.

00:08 And here in Victoria, for instance, the highest dual fuel bills are ironically being felt

00:14 in the Latrobe Valley and Sale in Gippsland in Victoria's east.

00:18 And that's exactly where we see some of those huge power stations.

00:21 But there, households are looking at an average eye-watering combined dual fuel bill of around

00:28 $4,425.

00:30 That's up by $810.

00:32 And if we take a look around the country, we can see that the default market offer prices

00:37 have gone up in New South Wales and Queensland by 21%.

00:41 In Victoria, they're up by 26%.

00:43 In South Australia, you're paying up to a quarter more for both gas and electricity.

00:49 And St. Vincent de Paul says that this is really smashing some of those low-income households.

00:56 They say that while the federal government bill scheme is being rolled out to concession

01:01 card holders, they'd like to see state governments across the board step up once again to help

01:07 yet again with some of those low-income households, particularly those that are on concessions

01:12 plans or have health care cards or pensions, and those that are already on payment plans

01:17 with various utility companies.

01:20 Because they say that this latest bill price tracker doesn't actually take into account

01:25 the very end of winter, so there's still some bill shock to come, as well as at the same

01:31 time that people are trying to prepare for all of that outgoing money for Christmas.

01:36 So they also say as well that people should shop around, even if they've only just done

01:41 so before July, because even after this latest price tracker report, we have seen a little

01:47 bit of movement with some of those offerings from the retail providers.

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