Water4All

July 23, 2024

breakthrough-2 water-breakthrough-challenge winners

Key information:

Led by: Southern Water

Partners:   Sagacity, Synectics Solutions, Equifax, Auriga, Waterwise, Advizzo, AgilityEco, Thames Water, Severn Trent, South West Water, Portsmouth Water, Leep Utilities, Affinity Water, Anglian Water, Northumbrian Water, Together

Competition: Breakthrough 2: Transform

Funding awarded: £616,807

All water companies offer bespoke support for financially vulnerable customers – those who are already experiencing or at risk of experiencing difficulty paying their water bills. However, many of these customers are unaware of the level of support available to them, or how to access it. While water companies already have specific initiatives in place aimed at supporting these customers, urgent help is needed to help water companies better identify and support low income and vulnerable households, and those at risk of becoming vulnerable. Recent data from the project, showed that over a fifth of pensioners in ‘severe financial difficulty’ are not claiming the benefits (both from the government and individual water companies) that they’re eligible for.

Water4All embarked on a six-month scoping project to create a model for a data-driven solutions enabling water suppliers to identify and predict financial vulnerability for customers, based on their household data. The project, which was run closely with partner Sagacity, a data-management company, made use of Southern Water’s data, as well as publicly available open-source data, to determine customer vulnerability.

The project was a success, with the proof of concept highlighting that many customers don’t receive the support for which they are eligible. Of the 15,000 customers potentially eligible for Pension Credit:

One in four did not claim pension credit and 63% were not on a social tariff (a scheme which helps those on a low income reduce bills) – with almost one in five (16%) living in poverty without either Pension Credit or social tariff support in place.
22% of those classified as being in ’severe difficulty’ weren’t on a social tariff, when they need help the most.
At the same time, 35% were claiming a social tariff, despite showing no signs of financial difficulty.

A key challenge of the project was ensuring customer data protection. As data-handling experts, it was important to have Sagacity on-board to advise on this and ensure every partner was aware of, and comfortable with, the data’s use and handling. They were responsible for designing and producing the AI and data analytic model.

Having successfully used the new model to identify these vulnerable and ‘at risk of becoming vulnerable’ customers, the project is now looking to investigate the most effective ways of engaging sensitively with those key audiences, to educate them about, and support them to access, the support available.

With the cost-of-living spiralling, many people are struggling for the first time in their lives – and as we can see, not everybody knows help exists, or is comfortable claiming that help. While we do our very best to support all of our vulnerable and low-income households, it is a challenge reaching everyone who is eligible for support. This project has been invaluable in identifying not only those who need that support, but proactively reaching people before it becomes a problem. We can’t wait to see what the next stage of this project holds.

Rachel Ryan-Crisp, Head of Customer Services and Vulnerability Lead for Southern Water