Suncorp offers mice plague relief package

Suncorp has announced that effective immediately, it is offering relief assistance to individual and business customers impacted by a mouse plague in Southern Queensland and NSW.

It has come as regions in Queensland and NSW have been ravaged by an explosion of mice populations amid a downpour of rain and healthy harvest season across many of these parts.

Mice have destroyed crops, fodder in barns, homes, and have bitten residents in these areas.

The NSW government announced a $50-million package to offer farmers, households and small businesses assistance to battle the mice plague affecting parts of rural and regional NSW.

The government measures include $500 rebates for eligible households, $1,000 rebates for eligible small businesses, and free mice bait (grain treatment) for farmers.

Suncorp welcomed the NSW government’s decision to extend its natural disaster funding to support regions affected by the mice plague, and announced that it will be extending relief assistance options, including:

• Opportunity to defer scheduled loan repayments (including interest-only) on a case-by-case basis;
• Existing loan restructuring (for example, principal and interest to interest-only) with the waiver of establishment fees;
• Waiver of early withdrawal fees for customers wishing to withdraw from term deposits and/or farm management deposits; and
• Working capital assistance.

The disaster relief package is available to customers in Darling Downs – Maranoa, and Toowoomba (Queensland), and Far West and Orana, New England and North West, Central West, Murray, and Riverina (NSW).

Impacted customers have been encouraged to contact Suncorp or their relationship manager for further information about the packages.

Commenting on the relief measures, Suncorp executive general manager business banking Glenn Haslam said: “We understand this is a difficult time for our customers and we want customers in these affected communities to know assistance is available and that we are here, ready to support them.

“We’re aware this mice plague is having a heightened impact on farmers and producers in these regions, who are already facing increased operating costs as they emerge from the drought. These regions and customers are at the very heart of Suncorp’s agribusiness, and our number one priority is the safety and wellbeing of our customers and their businesses.”

Lenders have recently offered disaster relief packages for customers affected by cyclones, floods, bushfires and COVID-19 in India.

[Related: Major bank donates $1m to India COVID-19 appeal]

Malavika Santhebennur is the features editor on the mortgages titles at Momentum Media.

Before joining the team in 2019, Malavika held roles with Money Management and Benchmark Media. She has been writing about financial services for the past six years.