How Thames Water is using data to automatically enrol customers in need

Thames Water (TW) has enhanced its WaterHelp tariff to better support customers in need through the cost of living crisis. TW is keen to exceed the regulator’s targets for social tariff take up and to reach the customers most in need, yet faces low customer awareness despite extensive outreach, with many customers experiencing digital, disability and language barriers. Previous attempts to automate using DWP’s matching service were not fine grained enough, providing only yes/no responses for benefits receipt.

Thames Water is piloting with two London boroughs and Policy in Practice to automatically assess low income customers in water arrears for WaterHelp eligibility. TW expects to automatically enrol over 1,200 eligible customers onto WaterHelp, increasing to 2,500 in April as tariff increases take effect. This replaces traditional mass marketing efforts and a manual application journey which places the onus on the customer to be aware of the tariff and to then complete an application.

Technically, multiple benefits and administrative datasets from DWP and local authorities (LAs) were matched by Policy in Practice at the household level. The data is then analysed to calculate water poverty and assess eligibility against Thames Water’s criteria. To maintain data privacy, Policy in Practice acted as a trusted third party, matching LA data to TW’s customer records and flagging eligible customers, meaning TW never received customer data. Legally, the data sharing was possible under the Digital Economy Act section 38 and section 38 provisions for Water Poverty, with GDPR’s minimisation and proportionality achieved by adopting the trusted third party model.

Over 1,200 customers are expected to be enrolled from April 2025, doubling enrolment and distributing an estimated £500,000 over a year without having to go through a 30 minute income and expenditure assessment. 600 customers were found to be in both water arrears and council tax arrears and will receive additional support by the council. The approach is planned to scale to other local authorities across the Thames Water region.

Thames Water expects to reach customers in financial hardship while saving administration costs as it scales this programme across London.