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From now on, suppliers will no longer be able to automatically cut off the electricity of households in default of payment
The Walloon Parliament adopted, on Wednesday, the proposal for a majority decree aimed at better informing consumers of the possibilities available to them in the event of difficulties in paying for their electricity consumption, to clarify procedures and to provide for intervention Justice of the Peace before any power cut.
Only the cdH abstained, considering in particular that further simplification was still necessary. “The reform will not come into force before next fall. We might have continued to work to simplify the decree and create dialogue as early as possible”, thus justified the group leader of the humanists within the regional assembly, François Desquesnes.
The text, which stems from the hearings on energy poverty organized in 2020 in the Walloon parliament, provides in particular that consumers in difficulty must be informed of the range of tools available to them to enable them to pay their arrears and control their debts.
It’s a step forward
The use of smart meter prepayment will also be better regulated. This proposal for a decree is “an additional tool to allow people to get out of it and be protected by justice in the event that a supplier wants to make a cut. It’s a step forward, admittedly modest, but a step forward in consumer protection” , commented the leader of the PS group in the Walloon parliament, André Frédéric.
“It is a win-win mechanism likely to avoid excessive cuts – which exist even if they are rare – and which allows people in difficult situations to have the possibility of being helped to regain a fully dignified life. “added his liberal counterpart, Jean-Paul Wahl.
“Our proposed decree will better protect the rights of consumers by regulating cutoff situations in the event of non-payment but also self-cutoffs linked to prepayment”, finally estimated the deputy Ecolo Olivier Bierin. In 2019, fuel poverty, whether felt, hidden or measured, already affected almost a third of the Walloon population.
