Debt – persecuting the poor Those struggling to pay their bills will
not get any sympathy from the new water company. A Water Service
discussion document that was leaked to the media revealed that some householders
could face legal action for unpaid water charges within seven weeks.
Drawn up by Crystal Alliance, the company that has been awarded the £7m
contract by the Water Service to run its billing system, this document
sets out a strategy for debt recovery. This envisages a two-tier
system of debt recovery based on a persons’ credit rating – high risk or
low risk. Householders are given the labels “affluent achiever” or
“rock bottom”. The strategy for debt recovery differs depending on
which category a person falls into. Everyone receives a bill at the
same time, but those categorised as high risk will get a reminder after
14 days, but low risk householders will not get that letter for another
two weeks. On day 21, the final demand will arrive at the high risk house,
but the low risk customer will not get that until day 49. Meanwhile,
on day 49, the high risk customer has been referred to a debt collection
agency or recommended for legal action. The low risk customer gets another
34 days grace before they find themselves in a similar position. The poorest
householders, those most likely to have a poor credit rating and least
able to pay, are pursued more ruthlessly than wealthy householders who
are the most able to pay. While the Water Service says it will not
use demeaning labels such as “rock bottom”, the principles that lie behind
such terms will still be in place. The fact that they have adopted
such a ruthless debt recovery strategy indicates that they know full well
that water charges are a burden many families will be unable to bear.
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