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| WaterVoice urges customers not to ignore their water bills |
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Customers who are struggling to pay their water and sewerage bill, received over the past few weeks, should contact their water company without delay to explore payment options - rather than storing up trouble for later.
Sheila Reiter, Chairman of WaterVoice Wessex said:
"We fully appreciate that for some customers, particularly those on low and fixed incomes, it may well be proving very difficult to pay the bill.
However, rather than ignoring the problem we would encourage them to make contact with their water company to discuss a payment plan.
We continue to discuss the problem of rising debt with the water companies and other agencies in the Wessex region".
All three companies - Bristol Water, Bournemouth and West Hampshire Water and Wessex Water - are keen to talk to customers about ways to pay the bill, and the variety of flexible payment plans available.
Citizens' Advice and other money advice agencies can help customers begin to manage a debt problem."
For those customers who are not on a meter, this may be a good time to reconsider their decision and to contact the company to arrange for a meter to be fitted (free of charge).
Many customers find their bill is reduced when they switch to a meter, and metering may help to minimise water wastage.
Customers can switch back to unmeasured billing within 12 months if they decide that being on a meter is not the best option.
WaterVoice Wessex also recommends that customers read all the information accompanying the bill, to make sure they are fully aware of the range of tariffs and rebates available to them. |
