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Financial Hardship Policy
Definition of Hardship
The Communications Alliance Credit Management Code defines financial hardship as:
A situation where a Customer is unable, reasonably, because of illness, unemployment or other reasonable cause, to discharge their financial obligations under their contract with the Supplier and the Customer reasonably expects to be able to discharge those obligations if payment and/or Service arrangements were changed. Financial hardship can be of limited or long term duration.
Credit Management
In times of genuine hardship, customers and/or their financial counsellor deserve easy access to empathetic and skilled staff who can promptly address their circumstance or concerns. ACN will provide this service by training all staff in our credit management area to identify financial hardship customers.
ACN expects that its Credit Team members to act with compassion and sympathy, yet still manage the situation within business requirements. Credit staff are required to accept reasonable payment arrangements, taking into account each customer's individual circumstances.