Yorkshire Water extends support for vulnerable billpayers

Yorkshire Water is investigating why customers may have missed bill payments to help support vulnerable people in their region.

The company is surveying people who may be struggling financially to better understand their situation and signpost additional available help.

It is using technology from Tell Jo to improve the support, including offering payment arrangements, the option to sign up to debt or support schemes and to register to be on the priority services register.

It ran a pilot in autumn 2023 which saw 2,000 customers invited to complete a seven-minute wellbeing check to identify what vulnerabilities they may have. Yorkshire aims to have rolled it out to more than 12,000 people by the end of the current financial year 2023-24.

Community engagement manager Claire Gott said: “We know when customers don’t pay their bills or fall into financial difficulty there’s often more to their circumstances and we want to understand how customers are coping and what we can do to help.

“When customers complete the wellbeing check, TellJo provides them with tailored outcomes and Yorkshire Water can also offer payment arrangements, financial help through support schemes and see if they will benefit from our priority services register,” she added.

The project was designed in acknowledgement of the wide variety of reasons billpayers may be struggling. In the first phase of the pilot more than 1000 people were directed to help aimed at managing finances.

Gott said more than 150 people were also provided with direct support via bill reductions, debt support schemes or tailored payment arrangements.