Customer care

Energy Wellbeing

Meridian is committed to supporting customers affected by hardship. We’ve put our money where our mouth is and committed $5 million to helping support our customers who are in energy hardship.

Energy Wellbeing Fund

The cost of living is a real issue for many New Zealanders. To help our most vulnerable customers, we’ve created an Energy Wellbeing Fund with a $5 million investment, aimed at supporting 5,000 Meridian and Powershop households in hardship on their journeys towards energy wellbeing.

We’re using a holistic approach to support customers who are in energy hardship, not only through bill credits and payment plans, but also by funding in-home assessments and appropriate interventions – from curtains right through to insulation and heat pumps.

 

Supporting our Customers Consumer Care Policy

Measuring success through improved wellbeing

Helping people out of energy hardship isn’t just about reducing debt – it’s also about improving a whole lot of other social outcomes such as housing, health and education. To make sure that our Energy Wellbeing Fund was providing the right help in the right ways, we commissioned Impact Lab to assess its wider social impacts. In 2023, Impact Lab found that for every dollar invested by Meridian in the programme between January 2022 and June 2023, New Zealand received $5.20 worth of social benefits, including reductions to financial hardship, improved mental and physical health, healthier housing and better academic achievements.

 

You can read the report here.

Helping customers in energy hardship

Meridian Chief Executive Neal Barclay speaks to the very real issue of energy hardship in our society and what Meridian is doing to help customers in need.

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Tackling Zero

Tackling Zero is Meridian’s quarterly newsletter for people whose roles or studies are focused on sustainability, or for whom this is an area of interest. Each issue will offer Meridian’s insights into a topical sustainability issue, as well as stories on how we, our customers and supply chain partners are tackling sustainability. It also includes links to recent Meridian disclosures such as new policies and reports.


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