According to the Electricity Supply Regulations [Subsidiary Legislation 423.01], in the event of non-payment by a consumer of an overdue account, Enemalta has the legal right to suspend the electricity supply of any account held by the said consumer. Furthermore, in the event of a payment that is delayed beyond three months, Enemalta shall also have the power to remove the meter.
5,620 households and 1,339 businesses had their electricity supply cut off between January 2008 and May 2011 for not paying their electricity bills. During the same period, a total of 96 clients had their water supply cut off due to unpaid bills. Last year, 977 Enemalta clients had their power supply cut for failure to settle bills.
Pending bills in all those instances ranged from €1,000 to higher than €20,000.
Before any service is discontinued, ARMS, the company that handles the billing service, sends a notice to the client and also makes contact by phone. If the client cannot immediately settle the bills in full, arrangements can be made for payment in instalments. Service is disconnected when the bills still remain unpaid.
While it is true that the Social Policy Ministry operates a scheme whereby low-income people can qualify for an energy benefit of up to 30% of their consumption for a maximum of €75 annually and can also be eligible for a subsidy on the rent of their electricity and water meters, this notwithstanding, it cannot be denied that many Maltese households are experiencing an unwarranted degree of hardship that can never be reconciled with today's household basic needs and amenities.
In today's age, it is impossible to lead a normal life without electric appliances. Therefore, today, the right to electricity is a substantive part of the basic right to live in dignity, the right to health and even the right to life itself.
Without electricity, you cannot warm or cool your house, preserve food or medicine in the refrigerator, use medical appliances that require electricity, heat up water, charge health-related devices such as electric wheelchairs, charge mobile phones or connect to the internet, and more. Lacking electricity especially harms people with medical issues and vulnerable populations, including the ill, the elderly, children and babies.
For families living in financial straits, maintaining the ARMS payments can be a living nightmare. The most drastic measure the company has for collecting debt is cutting off electricity, and this harsh tool has become routine. It is used even for consumers who do not have the means to pay the bill and for clients who, given their medical situations, need to be continuously connected to electricity. Even those consumers who, due to their financial and physical states, are eligible for a discount on electricity are not protected from being disconnected.
I got to know of an elderly man who suffers from diabetes and sleep apnoea syndrome. To sleep, he needs an air compression machine. He also uses medication, such as insulin, that requires refrigeration. This man is recognised as partially disabled by the state. However, his electricity has been cut off several times in the past. He is assisted by donations and lives at times without electricity. The last time his electricity was disconnected, he needed to throw away his insulin and buy replacements, despite his financial hardship.
Electricity is unique. It is a product that has public components and connection to electricity should be recognised as a basic right. Therefore, the state is required to ensure that each consumer who cannot pay their debts will be subject to more moderate and proportional methods of debt collection that do not include the extreme sanction of disconnection. So long as the consumer does not have enough electricity to live with dignity, he or she should not be disconnected from electricity.
It is high time that ARMS stop using a statistical trick in assuming that consumers who should not be disconnected from the electricity supply no matter what will not pay if it is illegal to disconnect them.
The least one would expect is a possibility of having recourse to the court, demanding the state to prohibit disconnecting people from their electricity due to monetary debt. Disconnection due to debt should occur only on the condition of holding a hearing, in which the person's and their household's financial, health and circumstantial situation can be assessed.
In fact, draft EU rules published in March 2023 would require all EU member states to protect vulnerable consumers from being cut off by electricity suppliers if they cannot pay their bills.
The proposal was part of a broader upgrade of Europe's electricity market rules, which Brussels pledged to rewrite that year when soaring gas and electricity prices, driven by Russia cutting gas supplies to Europe, left consumers across Europe struggling to pay their energy bills.
The draft added that suppliers and national authorities should make measures available to help vulnerable consumers manage their energy use and costs, with countries deciding which consumers to class as "vulnerable," based on factors such as income level or relying on health equipment that runs on electricity, such as a ventilator.
In winter, many have to make the choice between either buying food for their family or heating their home.
Some governments have already banned disconnections nationally, such as Ireland, which did so for vulnerable consumers struggling with soaring energy bills.
Perhaps our legislators should consider legislating such a ban also in Malta.
Dr Mark Said is a lawyer