Water and power duo teams up with Citizens' Advice to boost vulnerable customers' access to help

United Utilities and power distributor, Electricity North West, have teamed up with Citizens Advice Manchester, to trial a move to simplify access to extra support for vulnerable customers this winter.

To date, customers needing extra support had to register their details separately with the water company and power network operator. Under a pilot project the two utilities and Citzens Advice have enabled customers to register once to benefit from support relating to water and energy.

The register combines United Utilities’ priority services register and Electricity North West’s extra care register. Vulnerable customers can share their details with it via Citizens Advice who let both networks know of any additional needs the customers have in the case of an electricity or water outage.

The extra support scheme is free and available to customers who are elderly, in ill physical or mental health or disabled as well as and customers with financial worries or language barriers.

Citizens Advice Manchester’s Rosi Avis, said: “This joined up approach will enable our advisers to streamline the work they do with people coming to us for help, connecting them to as much priority support as possible in one intervention. Making this process quicker and easier allows us to help even more people at a time where we know many people are worried about their energy supply.”

The combined online register is being provided by charity-owned business Auriga, which offers services to vulnerable people and those in financial difficulty.