1. An account holder faced with disconnection must be offered a payment agreement unless the customer is already currently in default of an existing payment agreement. No second payment agreements will be offered on the same debt.
2. The account holder shall be required to provide information on a form supplied by the Utility to ensure a reasonable payment agreement is offered by the Utility or to properly evaluate any payment agreement offered by the account holder. The information is: current household income; ability to pay; payment history including prior defaults, the size of the bill, the amount of time, and the reasons why the bill has been outstanding, and any special circumstances creating extreme hardships within the household. If the account holder refuses to supply the information requested in writing or gives false information the utility will be unable to offer a reasonable agreement based on IUB standards and will therefore only offer 12 equal payments over 12 months.
3. In order to avoid a completely arbitrary and capricious standard, the City has attempted to establish some definition and/or proposed application of these criteria mandated by the Iowa Utilities Board. A point value has then been assigned to the varying degrees of each criteria.
Household Income and Ability to Pay - Household income shall be total income, including any subsidies of every adult living in the household. The ability to pay shall be a factor of the size of the household. These two shall be combined and compared to the percentage of median income for Sioux County in accordance with USDA loan criteria.
70% + of median income by household size 1 60%-69% of median income by household size 2 50%-59% of median income by household size 3 40%-49% of median income by household size 4 39% or less of median income by household size 5 Payment History including prior defaults on similar agreements - The worse the payment history/agreement defaults, the fewer months that will be allowed in any payment agreement due to the increased chance of default. Fewer late payments/defaults indicates a better credit risk for the utility and a more financially responsible customer. Late payment shall be any in the last 24 months paid after the due date.
9 or more late payments in 24 months or
2 broken agreements (past practices)1 7-8 late payments in last 24 months or 1 broken payment agreement 2 5-6 late payments in last 24 months 3 3-4 late payments in last 24 months 4 2 late payments or less in last 24 months 5 Amount of Time Outstanding - Shall be measured from the time when the first deliquent bill became due. Each month shall be figured on 30 days or fraction thereof (i.e. 91 days is 4 months)
Over 12 months 1 From 6-12 months 2 Under 6 months 3 Reason for Outstanding Bill/Extreme Hardship - These have been combined as they are viewed as simply degrees of reasons why someone may not pay their bill. There typically is always a reason for not paying a bill from the person that simply "didn't want to pay" to the person that was in a severe car accident or suffered a heart attack. The criteria is very subjective staff will do it's best to quantify
Insufficient Reason 1 Minor medical problem or other problem 2 Job Loss, Death in Family or combination or any 2's 3 Extreme Hardship, Severe medical (Heart Attack, Major Accident, Amputation) 4 Combination of serious reasons 3's or 4's 5 Size of the Bill - This shall be figured as the amount due on any outstanding bills.
Under $600 1 $600- $799 2 $800-$999 3 $1000-$1199 4 $1200 or more 5
4. The payment agreement offered by the Utility shall:
* Unwillingness to give complete or giving false or inaccurate information will assume a 12 month agreement is reasonable Criteria Points Maximum Months 12 or less 12 months* 13 13 months 14 14 months 15 15 months 16 16 months 17 17 months 18 18 months 19 19 months 20 20 months 21 21 months 22 22 months 23 23 months 24 or more 24 months
5. Payment Agreements Offered by the Customer - They must be in writing, signed by the account holder, shall be at least 6 months in length, and shall be accompanied by the form with all requested information supplied in order for the utility to determine the reasonableness of it.