getting rid of water meter

chris123

my sister moved into her new house last year, with the house came a water meter. so whats the problem i hear you ask, she has two special needs children with a skin condition called congenital icthyosis it effects one in six hundred thousand. she needs to bath the children twice a day using emollients and her washing machine is on constantly. the cost of her water through the meter is very high as you can imagine. as the meter came with the house she has a problem. she asked severn trent to remove the meter but they wont. she filled out a vunerable houeshold form but was told she was not elligible because the children are only on disability not the dole or any other form of benifits. so can anybody tell us how we can get severn trent to remove the meter. this is a genuine problem, she and her partner have enough on there plate without forking out extra on water.

any help would be very gratefull

TOBRUK

Hi Chris,
I don't know if this will be of any help to you as I am with Welsh water, however severn trent is apparently in charge of some aspect of my supplier.

To tell you that

she filled out a vunerable houeshold form but was told she was not elligible because the children are only on disability not the dole or any other form of benifits.

seems wrong to me. Was this the 'Additionol services' form 'for elderly and disabled customers with medical conditions and customers with special needs' booklet?
I have one of these booklets with a form inside (I am disabled) although I have not filled it in. However, on one page of this booklet it has information about a 'vulnerable Group Tariff' Welsh Water has introduced a social tariff which is designed to help vulnerable groups called 'Vulnerable Gloup Tariff'. It is a voluntaly scheme and it states that you may be eligible for this scheme if you are on water meter. Whether Severn trent has a similar scheme it would be worth asking.
Under criteria medical conditions to be eligible it has: 'Weeping skin Disease (eczema, psoriasis, varicose ulceration) also, Desquamation (flaky skin loss). Now I am sure that the condition of your sister's children would come under this criteria, and perhaps her GP could help?
Under all this information it says that there is a booklet available called 'Vulnerable GroupTariff' there is also a phone number to request one 0800 052 0138. I really don't know if this is any good to you as it comes under Welsh Water, but it would be worth finding out.
Hope it helps.

chris123

hi tobruk what you have said sounds very interesting i will call paula straight away thank you so much for your help.

kind regards chris

Altarf

Look at http://www.stwater.co.uk/upload/pdf/Code_of_practice_-_metering_your_water_supply.pdf

On page 5 is the following:

"Tariff for Vulnerable Groups
If you live in a metered property, you may qualify for our vulnerable customer provisions if you or a person living with you, receive a qualifying Government benefit and you are:
• In receipt of a specified benefit and have three or more dependant children aged 16 or under living at the property, or
• In receipt of a specified benefit and you, or your child have a qualifying medical condition which requires the use of large amounts of water. We can provide details of the qualifying benefits and medical conditions. If you require any further information, please contact our Billing Customer Contact Centre."

chris123

hi altarf, thanks for that web site very usefull i read what it had to say and will pass it on to paula straight away.

thanks once again

kind regards chris