Thames Water and vulnerable person

VocationMatters

I work in mental health. I have a client who is distressed as she has received a debt recovery letter for her water bill from an agency – arrears are £559.33.

My client is vulnerable with mental and physical health needs and lives on benefits. She said she used to pay her water bill weekly through her rent (about £4 p/week). About this time last year she was informed that Thames Water would now collect the bill direct, and TW sent her through a payment card. In June 2020 she called TW and they said they would send her through a form so she could apply for a discount on her bill. This didn’t arrive. 

I recently called TW, who suggested contacting Water Direct - a fund which can arrange up to 50% discount for those eligible (involves setting up a DD and alerting Jobcentre plus to pay arrears through her benefits) – but this is not able to be paid retrospectively / or if there are outstanding arrears. This is the fund she should have applied to when the bill payment changed as outlined above. TW also suggested Trust Assistance Fund which could halve the debt - I called this trust and it is not currently operating.

I believe this is not addressing the fundamental problem here – that my client has ‘fallen through the gaps’. It looks as though she was paying the discounted rate through her rent, and then when the changes took place neither the council nor TW acknowledged her eligibility for this, and have charged her the full rates. This is unfair.

I have called TW again to say I feel they should look back and charge her the discounted rate for 2020 - 21, but I got nowhere. I am willing to call again, and be persistent. But I wondered if anybody else could offer any advice on this. I called National Debt Advice Line - they suggested the Trust Assistance Fund mentioned above, which as I said is closed.

Thoughts appreciated.

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.

I think that the problem is that many of the call centre staff are working from home. They don't have the authority to deal with 'complex' matters and are reluctant to pass problems to their supervisors.

I suggest you contact The Consumer Council for Water for their advice/assistance. https://www.ccwater.org.uk/households/