Help protect phone service for low income consumers!

The groundwork for a potentially major victory for low income Californians was scored today! Changes to the Lifeline telephone service verification process have resulted in a rate of up to 70% of low income consumers getting unfairly removed from lifeline service over the last few months. Now, due to the efforts of a coalition of consumer groups, low income consumers removed from the Lifeline telephone service will be reinstated into the program, and refunded for the time they were removed from the service. Since the full California Public Utilities Commission has the final say, you can take action here before the CPUC final decision Nov. 9.

The CPUC, in 2006, moved administration of Lifeline service to private a firm, Solix, rather than the individual telephone companies, who previously administered the program. Among other issues, notice to consumers about changes in verification to obtain Lifeline service was very poor, and resulted in an inordinate number of removals from Lifeline service. Consumer groups, including UCAN, have offered cases of individuals removed from Lifeline service and asked for action from the CPUC.

The CPUC, by way of Commissioner Dian M. Grueneich, has thankfully issued an Assigned Commissioner’s Ruling which suspends the verification process for Lifeline telephone service for 6 months, allowing time to address obvious flaws in the current process that led to so many low income Californians losing low income benefits. The CPUC identifies a misleading logo as well as procedural flaws as partly to blame, and is currently taking comment. You can take action by clicking here!

The portion of the decision(read the entire decision here) refunding low income consumers, from page 5, reads as follows:

"I am ordering that Solix send a letter to all customers who had previously been notified that they were to be removed from the Lifeline program because they did not respond to Solix’s verification letter. The letter will explain that the customer will be temporarily reinstated to the program. Those customers will receive a new verification letter after we have instituted our corrective measures and resumed the verification process. The carriers will be instructed to back-date those customers participation in the Lifeline program to the date when they were removed from the program."

Lifeline telephone service ensures that low income consumers are able to get basic telephone service, and UCAN is committed to ensuring this service continues to serve its fundamental goals. We will let you know how this decision progresses through final approval at the CPUC, and you can take action by clicking here.

Comments are due on Monday, November 6 and should be e-mailed to Kelly Hymes at khy [at] cpuc [dot] ca [dot] gov and to the assigned Administrative Law Judge, Karen Jones, at kaj [at] cpuc [dot] ca [dot] gov.