Unprecedented demand for financial help through the Dunedin City Council-funded Electricity Consumers Fund has drained the coffers dry after less than six months.
The $167,000 fund, administered by Anglican Family Care and distributed by Dunedin welfare organisations, is not due to be replenished until after the new financial year on July 1.
‘‘We have seen increase demand in every area - it is alarming,'' Anglican Family Care director Nicola Taylor said.
After the distribution of grants from the 2008/09 allocation began in September last year, 676 households received emergency assistance, causing the fund to run out in January. This was much earlier than the 2007/08 allocation, which lasted until May.
Of the 676 applicants, 146 were wage earners, 12 had no income, and the remainder were beneficiaries and students. The maximum grants allowable were $200 per application, or $350 for those receiving budget advice.
‘‘The fund is brilliant. It allows us to give discretionary one-off assistance to people with the most acute need,'' Mrs Taylor said.
Anglican Family Care budget adviser Heather Trainor said people were showing up with power bills in excess of $600 and some as high as $1400. This was often a result of the ‘‘smooth pay'' system operated by electricity companies, which allowed people to make regular automatic payments of a set amount.
‘‘People who pay this way don't get a disconnection, but they can easily fall behind on what they owe,' Ms Trainor said.
‘‘They get stuck in a rut, paying constant arrears and never catching up on their power usage.''
The Electricity Consumers Fund was a ‘‘lifeline'' that agencies could offer to people in need, and it was of grave concern that it had run out so early,
Presbyterian Support Otago chief executive Gillian Bremner said.
With the Electricity Consumers Fund gone, Ms Trainor believed the city's budget advisory services would be under increased pressure.
Agencies would try to find other ways to help, or would have to refer people to Work and Income.
Founded in 1998, the Electricity Consumers Fund originally allocated an annual total of $200,000, but after the fund was not fully used, this was reduced in 2007 to $167,000. In its report on poverty, Can We Do Better? Voices of Poverty, Dunedin 2008 released last month, Presbyterian Support Otago appealed to the DCC to restore the fund to the $200,000 level.
At its Annual Plan 2009/10 hearings in January, it was mooted by Community Development Committee chairman Cr Paul Hudson that, due to the economic situation, the fund be raised to $200,000. However, councillors voted 10-5 to keep the fund at $167,000. Contacted by The Star, Cr Hudson said the fund allocation was in the Draft Annual Plan and people could make submissions on it.
