Fewer water customers have fallen behind on bill payments during the cost of living crisis compared to during Covid-19, United Utilities (UU) has said.
Although the number of people seeking support has risen, this has not translated into more missed payments.
“While we are seeing more people reaching out and asking for help, because of the affordability offerings that we’ve got we’re able to support those customers with a lower bill that they can keep paying,” director of revenue, Michelle Atkinson, told Utility Week. “So that is not translating into missed payments.”
Around 200,000 (6%) of UU’s customers are currently receiving some form of financial support, ranging from capped bills, having a water meter for homes with lower consumption, or pay-as-you-go options.
“We are not seeing indicators of people in the north west falling more behind with the water bill at present than through previous periods,” Atkinson said. “Customers are coping better than they did through Covid. There was a significant level of uncertainty, whereas customers now are reaching out for help.”
She suggested this was in part due to ramped up efforts by different organisations for early intervention on debt, which was triggered during the pandemic.
“The conversations we’re having a quite broad, and recognise there’s a different demographic of people potentially feeling the pinch to the cost of living crisis. Everybody is feeling it to some extent so there’s no stigma around being worried about asking for help.”
During the pandemic UU was one of several companies that began offering payment holidays, but Atkinson said the company has not seen the spike in uptake of this offer during the cost of living crisis.
She said that payment via UU’s app was on the rise, with customers able to pay off a portion of their bill, which the system recognises as a formal payment so no follow-up activity is triggered.
“For us it’s about getting people onto the lowest possible bill and trying to get to a point where we’ve lifted them out of water poverty by looking at individual circumstances,” Jane Haymes, affordability manager said. She added that around 12,000 billpayers become water debt-free after a year and can maintain the level of payment they agree with the company.
This keeps the levels of people needing support at a relatively stable level, Atkinson explained.
Despite the support the industry offers, it has faced criticism from Ofwat and CCW that it is not making people more aware of available help. Atkinson explained that seemingly “low awareness” among billpayers was not representative among those who need help.
“We use data to target our communications to those customers who need it most,” she said. “We are confident that research targeted to those customer groups would show water companies in a good light.”
Atkinson added the company was at 98%-99% capacity to offer support based on current uptake. “Customers are as aware as they can be and the schemes are very well used.”
The company supports the need for a single social tariff but wrote its business plan in the anticipation there would not be this option for customers, or it would take time to establish if it were to go ahead.
“A single social tariff would help us reach more customers, but we have to work with what we’ve got.”
After launching the Hardship Hub in 2019, the team has expanded the portal to offer access to customers as well as debt advisors. Following a refresh that included additional functions to make it easier for people with different accessibility needs to access information, the portal went live in July.