We helped 4,327 customers to pay their water bills with support from grants, direct benefit payments and special tariffs.

During the year, we set up a Debt Advice Team to support customers struggling to pay their water bills and launched a dedicated area on our website and new phone number for those in financial difficulties.

More than 600 customers received grants totalling £228,200 from the Southern Water Charitable Trust Fund, a registered charity established to help people facing financial hardship.

We also helped 1,044 customers through the WaterSure tariff, which gives financial help to those who use large amounts of water for essential purposes. This includes people on income-related benefits with three children under 19 in full-time education or customers with certain medical conditions.

Under the NewStart scheme, more than 1,762 customers who started to pay for their current yearly water bill by regular instalments had the same amount cleared from their arrears. So for every £1 a customer paid, a further £1 was deducted from their debt.

A further 900 customers joined a Department for Works and Pensions scheme to repay their debts directly through their benefit payments. More than 6,400 customers are now making payments under this scheme.

As part of our metering programme to install water meters for the majority of households in our region, we agreed two new tariffs with our regulator, Ofwat. The Changeover Tariff and Support Tariff will help customers who see an increase in their water bills as they move on to metered charges.