Lockdown Relief Fund
We want to do more to help with New Zealand’s economic recovery from the impacts of Covid-19. So, we are setting aside $2 million to help repay impaired debt incurred by service providers for consumers and small businesses connected to our network who were unable to pay their bills during the lockdown period (i.e. 25 March 2020 to 8 June 2020).
We want your views on this proposed Lockdown Relief Fund by 5pm on Thursday 2 July.
What’s happening?
Since January 2020 New Zealand has been monitoring and responding to a rapidly evolving Covid-19 situation. The situation is affecting all countries in the world and is expected to result in significant global economic impacts.
We’ve implemented some key support measures to help industry manage Covid-19 impacts, including the postponement of the CPI price change resulting in a saving of approx. $3 million for the industry, Ministry of Education support package and suspension of business disconnection and reconnection fees.
We’ve kept our promise to reduce the price of our Fibre Max (Gig) plans from 1 July 2020. More recently, we‘ve asked for your feedback on a proposal which would see the price of Small Business Fibre reduced by $3 per month. Feedback from you on that proposal has been positive and we’ll confirm our position to you shortly.
[Note: More details about our existing industry support can be found here]
But we want to do more.
We’ve been talking to you over the last few months about how we can work together as an industry to support economic recovery. Based on those discussions and our desire to support efforts to re-grow the economy, we are announcing today our commitment to establish a $2 million Lockdown Relief Fund.
What are the details
The Lockdown Relief Fund is designed to offer targeted support on a one-off basis to those suffering financial hardship as a result of Covid-19 where it impacted their ability to pay their retail broadband bill during the lockdown period (i.e. from 25 March 2020 to 8 June 2020).
We want your views on the fund and how we can pragmatically ensure this is used to relieve debt owed to service providers by those consumer and small businesses struggling financially as a result of Covid-19.
Fund framework
Broadly, the key features of the proposed Lockdown Relief Fund are:
- A fair play charter under which, in making a claim to access funds, service providers agree to utilise funding to reimburse the monthly Chorus wholesale costs for households or businesses connected where:
- they are connected to the Chorus network with a ADSL, VDSL or Bitstream 2 NGA connections;
- they have been unable to pay their retail broadband bill during the lockdown period (i.e. 25 March 2020 to 8 June 2020); and
- their inability to pay during that period results from Covid-19 financial hardship. Note: We’re particularly interested in your thoughts on what appropriate evidence might look like and the scope of any Chorus audit rights.]; and
- Funds are nominally allocated amongst service providers based on market share.
The proposed framework for the fund is set out in more detail here.
Consultation
We have summarised the key steps in this consultation below.
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Feature |
Commentary |
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Consultation period |
A consultation period opens on Friday 19 June and runs for 2 weeks until 5pm on Thursday 2 July. Feedback should be provided to RecoveryFundFeedback@chorus.co.nz |
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Chorus considers feedback |
We’ll review feedback and collate it into themes across the industry. |
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High-level summary of consultation feedback |
We’ll publish a Customer Update by no later than Monday 20 July confirming the framework for administering the Lockdown Relief Fund. We’ll include:
in each case as part of that customer update. Our default position is that we won’t identify the service providers who gave feedback nor what feedback belongs to which service provider. We’re open to making a connection between you and your feedback as part of the summary, if you tell us you want us to do so. |
We’re asking for your feedback to RecoveryFundFeedback@chorus.co.nz by 5pm on Thursday 2 July.
Next steps
Consultation Feedback
We’d like your feedback on the Lockdown Relief Fund by 5pm on Thursday 2 July. We’re specifically interested in your thoughts about what appropriate evidence of Covid-19 financial hardship might look like and the scope of any Chorus audit rights. Please send your feedback directly to RecoveryFundFeedback@chorus.co.nz.
You’ll need to let us know whether you want your feedback to remain anonymous or not (i.e. do you want us to publicly make a connection between you and your feedback as part of the high-level feedback summary we intend to provide to the industry once consultation closes).
Everything at your fingertips
We’ve created a dedicated space on the Chorus Service Provider website in which you’ll find all the information about the proposed Lockdown Relief Fund. You can find that here.
Contact
For any queries please contact Hamish Buchanan or Hannah Croft at first instance.