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'WaterSure' is the new name for the Vulnerable Groups Scheme, which was introduced by Government regulations¹ in April 2000 to allow certain metered household customers to pay a capped water bill.

The scheme is designed to help people who might otherwise worry about turning on their taps – possibly compromising their health and the health of others – because of concerns about affording their bill.

WaterSure allows eligible customers to pay no more than the average household bill for their region even if they use more than an average amount of water.

In order to qualify for assistance under WaterSure, the customer or someone living in their household, needs to be in receipt of one of the following benefits:

• Council Tax Benefit;
• Housing Benefit;
• Income Support;
• Income-based Jobseeker's Allowance;
• Working Tax Credit;
• Child Tax Credit (except families in receipt of the family element only); or
• Pension Credit.
  
  In addition, they need to either:
  
• be responsible for three or more children under the age of 19 and in full-time education living in the property; or
• have (or someone living in the property must have) a medical condition which requires significant additional use of water.

The medical conditions listed in the regulations as qualifying conditions are:
• desquamation (flaky skin disease);
• weeping skin disease;
• incontinence;
• abdominal stoma;
• Crohn's disease;
• ulcerative colitis; or
• renal failure requiring dialysis at home (where there is no contribution by the local health authority to the cost of the water used).

A number of factors have contributed to this increase including:

• more customers becoming metered;
• customers applying under the 'other medical condition' criteria;
• rising bills; and
• increased promotion by companies, including more contact with support and advice agencies and improved training to make sure that frontline staff are recommending the scheme to customers where appropriate.

• providing a dedicated freephone helpline for WaterSure customers;
• updating websites with details of the scheme and an on-line application form;
• wide publication of the scheme, for example, on billing leaflets, websites, and distribution of leaflets to organisations such as Citizens' Advice, debt advice agencies, local councils, council neighbourhood offices, libraries, charities, hospitals, GPs and medical centres;
• improved staff training and dedicated teams to deal sensitively with applications, including discussing applications over the phone with potential applicants to be sure that customers qualify before sending out application forms;
• accepting referrals from third parties such as Citizens' Advice or Money Advice;
• introducing an assessed charge for customers who would qualify for WaterSure under the eligibility criteria but where a meter cannot be installed because it is not practical or would be too expensive to do so; and
• proactively writing to metered customers who use large amounts of water and who are on the Third Party Deductions Scheme² and those in arrears to tell them about the assistance available.

Applying the 'WaterSure' scheme

The regulations allow a degree of flexibility to be applied in the use of the scheme. For example, there is no longer a requirement for the customer to have one of a list of defined medical conditions.

However, we are aware that in some circumstances companies will consider applying the scheme in a more flexible manner. For example, one company will accept a bank statement as evidence for the customer receiving child benefit rather than the order book or notice of entitlement as specified in the regulations. Others are flexible when assessing re-applications from customers already on WaterSure, for example by allowing them to simply confirm that their circumstances have not changed, rather than completing the full application process again³.

Any household customer who thinks that they may be eligible for help should contact their local water company for further details and an application form, or the Consumer Council for Water for further information on eligibility.

Service and Performance Team
September 2007

____________________________

(1) The Water Industry (Charges) (Vulnerable Groups) Regulations 1999 SI 1999/3441, amended by SI 2000/519, SI 2003/552, SI 2005/59
(2) Customers who are in arrears and in receipt of Income Support, Income-based Job Seeker's Allowance or Pension Credit can have payment taken directly from their benefit for their water and sewerage charges.
(3) Proof of benefit entitlement will still be required.

	Total number of applications		% change in number of applications between 2005-06 and 2006-071	Total number of successful applications		% change in successful applications between 2005-06 and 2006-071
	2005-06	2006-07		2005-06	2006-07
Anglian	1,297	1,530	18	719	904	26
Dwr Cymru	512	699	36	426	580	36
Northumbrian (inc Essex & Suffolk)	787	1,023	30	672	898	34
Severn Trent	1,508	1,791	19	1,223	1,508	23
South West	3,036	3,915	29	2,962	3,857	30
Southern	325	329	1	324	328	1
Thames	2,192	2,522	15	1,780	2,053	15
United Utilities	2,179	2,085	-4	1,447	1,565	8
Wessex	677	823	22	622	751	21
Yorkshire	1,350	1,714	27	1,308	1,663	27
Bournemouth & West Hampshire	139	320	130	96	222	131
Bristol	483	529	10	391	478	22
Cambridge	120	139	16	97	108	11
Dee Valley	16	39	144	16	36	125
Folkestone & Dover	59	118	100	42	106	152
Mid Kent	137	77	-44	103	41	-60
Portsmouth	32	34	6	30	30	0
South East	131	114	-13	114	102	-11
South Staffordshire	166	246	48	139	198	42
Sutton & East Surrey	68	94	38	64	91	42
Tendring Hundred	358	500	40	328	425	30
Three Valleys	289	332	15	284	316	11
Industry	15,861	18,973	20	13,187	16,260	23

(1) Percentage changes rounded to zero decimal places.