The Daily Examiner, 22 November 2017, p.5:
Power price hikes have tripled wage growth in the past decade and experts fear more NSW families could have their electricity disconnected this summer.
New data shows the average electricity bill has jumped a whopping 116 per cent from $1282 in 2007 to $2770 in 2017, while the median wage has grown just 35 per cent from $59,723 to $80,382.
The figures, compiled exclusively for The Daily Telegraph by price comparison firm Finder, reveal the average bill jumped 10.5 per cent in the past year alone, while wages grew just 2.2 per cent.
Analysis shows the portion of their wages workers are spending on their bills has grown more than 60 per cent in those 10 years.
Experts are now worried that residents forced to spend a bigger chunk of their wages on electricity could risk disconnections this summer as airconditioner use pushes bills even higher.
While state and federal politicians remain divided on how to tackle soaring power prices, figures from the Australian Energy Regulator show that from 2014 to 2017 the number of customers on hardship programs has risen from 18,293 to 24,921. The number of customers with bill debt has also jumped almost 20,000 in the past year, with 85,801 customers now in debt compared with 68,487 last year.
In the most recent financial quarter there were 7775 electricity disconnections in NSW and 1908 households with their gas cut off.
To put this in perspective, a careful aged pensioner living alone in New South Wales would have easily faced an annual electricity bill in 2016-17 in the vicinity of $1,300-$1,500.
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