Ofwat to learn lessons from customers’ Covid experiences

Ofwat is to conduct a customer-focused lesson-learning exercise to understand experiences during the Covid pandemic and see what improvements could be made.

It plans to host a “conversation” to #ListenCareShare, with customers themselves as well as companies and expert organisations invited to share examples of good practice, areas that may need attention, and the learnings that can be taken from these examples.

Initially the conversation is focusing on three key themes:

• financial vulnerability – research by the Financial Conduct Authority found that by autumn 2020, more than a third of adults faced a worse financial situation because of Covid-19;

• mental wellbeing – the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute has reported that people experiencing mental health problems are three-and-a-half-times more likely to be in problem debt; and

• information inequality – people without access to digital communications are now even more excluded because so many face-to-face services have been suspended during the pandemic.

To inform the conversation, Ofwat has undertaken customer research, hosted roundtables and engaged with a number of interested parties to better understand the situation from the customers' perspective. Over the coming weeks, it intends to delve deeper into the themes and share findings, inviting the sector to get involved.