The rules for power customers describing themselves as vulnerable following the death of Folole Muliaga may be tightened up amid energy retailers' fears they are being ripped off.
Mrs Muliaga died in Auckland in May 2007 after a Mercury Energy contractor cut power at her home because of an overdue bill, turning off the mains-powered oxygen machine which helped her breathe.
Power companies have since established registers of customers, such as elderly or disabled, whose wellbeing depends on receiving electricity, and also people considered medically dependent on power to supply equipment such as oxygen machines.
With power companies now more reluctant to cut non-paying customers off, some people had taken advantage of what they saw as "free power for life", an industry insider told the Sunday Star-Times.
Mercury Energy has approved just 1500 claims by customers wanting to be registered as medically dependent, out of 10,000 applications.
Energy retailers had only now sorted through most claims, Mercury general manager James Munro told the newspaper.
"The entire industry has had to work through a big bulge to get down to those who are genuinely medically dependent."
The Electricity Commission, which introduced voluntary guidelines to protect the vulnerable, is considering how to tighten up the system to stop people taking advantage of retailers while still protecting at-risk customers.
However, budgeting expert Darryl Evans warned that companies had to firstly refer people to budget services as some families were being hit hard by the recession.
