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Ofwat
Customers registered with water and sewerage companies for special assistance The Director General of Water Services has a duty to take account of the interests of those who are disabled or of pensionable age. In March 2001 Ofwat published "Services for disabled or elderly customers – revised guidance to the water and sewerage companies". This sets out guidance to water and sewerage companies on the essential elements of company policy and procedures to meet the needs of such customers. Examples of services that companies should offer include: password schemes, issue of bills and associated literature in other formats (for example, large print or braille), special arrangements to communicate with customers requiring special assistance in case of an emergency and a meter resiting service. The guidelines also set out that each company should maintain accurate and up-to-date records of customers who have expressed a need for specific assistance. The Register is important as it is designed to ensure that customers receive the specialised service they require. In Ofwat's Forward Programme 2002-03 we committed to review how the companies had implemented the revised guidelines. WaterVoice conducted the review on behalf of Ofwat and published the findings, "WaterVoice Review of the Application of Ofwat's Guidelines on Services for Disabled or Elderly Customers" in June 2003. WaterVoice reported that all companies were broadly following the Ofwat guidelines, although some were doing more in terms of the services offered, for example, actively publicising the services offered and liaising with specialist groups to further improve the quality of services. One of the recommendations resulting from the review was that "Ofwat should consider publishing information along the lines of Ofgem to highlight the numbers of people who have registered for special help and the uptake of services". Whilst Ofwat collects details of the number of customers registered for special services in each company area as part of the information it collects in companies' Annual Returns, to date this information has not been published. However, following the recommendation in the WaterVoice report, Ofwat agreed that this would help improve openness and transparency and is now therefore publishing this information. Number of customers registered for special assistance in 2003-04 The attached table shows the number of customers registered for special assistance in each water company. Ofwat does not collect details on the number of customers receiving each form of assistance, although companies are asked to ensure that customers receiving more than one service are not counted more than once. It can be seen that 67,858 customers were recorded on companies' registers in 2003-04. This figure is nearly 14% lower than the figure reported in 2002-03 (78,840). Companies report that this is due principally to data cleansing exercises where duplicate records have been eliminated, or where customers have moved away, or no longer require the assistance. Some companies have reported increases in numbers due to more active promotion of the register. Any customer requiring further details on the various forms of special assistance offered by companies or details of how to apply to be included on the register should contact their local water company. December 2004
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