Customer debt

ACHIEVING ZERO CUSTOMERS IN WATER POVERTY BY 2030 SPRINT WORKSHOP SUMMARY

Reference: 22/CU/04/10
ISBN: 978-1-84057-955-0
Published Date: 16/11/2022

As part of UK Water Industry Research (UKWIR) big question programme we are asking…. How do we achieve zero customers in water poverty by 2030?  We know water is an essential resource, households have access to clean and plentiful supply of water and cannot be cut off if they fall behind on their bills. However, for many people, the cost of water and wastewater services is unaffordable which puts them in ‘water poverty’.

At the start of the programme in 2019, we drafted a route map to answer this question, but  following many industry developments,  we conducted a sprint workshop with a cross section of stakeholders to generate ideas to refresh the Routemap.

Annex 1

Reference: 21/CU/03/4
ISBN: 978-1-84057-920-8
Published Date: 09/10/2021

Frontier Economics was commissioned by UKWIR to develop a range of pragmatic options for customer and stakeholder involvement in price controls, and an assessment framework to assess each of these options and how these can be implemented in the context of water regulation.

The overall aim of the project was not to settle on a single recommended option for customer and stakeholder engagement, but to identify a range of engagement options at a high level that can potentially be applied in UKWIR jurisdictions.

This report details the options for customer and stakeholder engagement that were developed, and presents the high-level risks, opportunities and trade-offs in the implementation of each.

Welfare Reform and Its' Impact on the Collection of Water Charges

Reference: 15/CU/04/8
ISBN: 1 84057 775 4
Published Date: 15/07/2015

Since 2010, the Government has embarked on a package of welfare reform which aimed to make the benefit system fairer, more affordable, and to reduce poverty, worklessness and welfare dependency.

The reforms have been wide ranging and impacted on many households in receipt of benefits and tax credits. With the advent of Universal Credit the whole structure of welfare payments is also changing.

This report examines the implications of the welfare reforms for water companies and their  customers, in order to help identify appropriate strategies water companies may take in adapting to them.

Specifically the report provides details of the welfare reform programme, impact, implementation and future roll out. It investigates customer views on how the welfare reforms have affected their ability to pay water charges, and assesses the impact of reforms on water companies and their customers through an analysis of changes in customers' payment behaviour, debt and arrears.