Utility Week

20 | JULY 2021 | UTILITY WEEK Customers Talking Points… "We cannot just ignore this but, at the same time, we cannot give into pressure from the crowds. We have to do what is right." Greg Jackson, chief executive, Octopus Energy, on the decision to pause advertising on GB News "Customers are making diffi cult decisions, with some turning to credit cards to cover their bills. Water companies need to be active in seeking out and providing help to those who need it the most, especially during these unprecedented times." David Black, interim chief executive, Ofwat "We have a golden opportunity to create a simpler and fairer system and end the indignity of people skipping meals or other essentials to pay their water bill." Emma Clancy, chief Executive, CCW, on the group's recommendation to introduce a single social tari• for England and Wales Quote, unquote A debt crisis is looming for vulnerable customers this winter Opinion Steve Crabb S ummer is here (at last!) and as I write this, the longest day of the year is just passing. But increasingly, the thoughts of everyone I speak to in the energy and water industries are turning to the coming winter – and whether it will bring the wave of • nancial hardship so many people have been predicting for so long. This was the topic of a recent roundtable I chaired, hosted by consumer vulnerability specialists Auriga Services. The 27 leaders from energy, water, charities and govern- ment who attended were broadly agreed that there is a serious problem looming, but it's currently being masked. That may be due to the furlough scheme and the exten- sion of universal credit, it could be because consumers are using high-interest credit cards to pay for routine household items – storing up problems for later – or because the kind of consumers who are experiencing income shock due to the pandemic are not used to handling problem debts, don't know how hard it is to get out of it, and wouldn't know who to disclose to even if they under- stand how important it is. In all likelihood, it's all of the above and more. Fortunately, most of the energy and water companies I've been speaking to are well aware of the problem and are putting in place programmes to help those most in need this winter. In my role as chair of Energy UK's Vul- nerability Commitment, for example, I've had a great many conversations with suppli- ers about the important work they are doing to identify customers in • nancial hardship and at risk of either getting into problem debt or – if they are prepayment meter customers – self-disconnecting. Collabora- tion with charities and other third parties is de• nitely increasing – this is one of the key purposes of the Vulnerability Commitment and I've been delighted to see the e‰ ect it has been having. I worry, though, that collaboration will only get us so far. Free-at-point-of-use debt advice services have nowhere near the capacity that we need to meet present levels of problem debt, and we are not seeing the investment in new services we need to close the gaps that the Wyman Review highlighted two years ago. In this area, as in data sharing, government support is needed to close the gap between where we are now and where we need to get to if we are going to help people get through this winter safely. Steve Crabb is the former director of con- sumer vulnerability and now chair of Energy UK's Vulnerability Commitment and chair of SES Water's Customer Scrutiny Panel. Switches between electricity suppliers hit an "unusual low" in May, the latest gures from Electralink have revealed. A total of 418,000 customers changed supplier in the month, which is 4 per cent less than the same period last year and the lowest monthly switches completed outside of the annual January dip since July 2017. Changes of supplier (COS) started in May 2021 were similarly low, with the month ending on 508,000. This is 1 per cent up year on year, with last May being in the middle of the rst lockdown. In terms of switching types, the only category that increased compared to May last year was large supplier to large supplier switches. All other types remained the same or decreased. ENERGY Switching hits four-year low

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