Priority services for customers in vulnerable circumstances

We all need extra support from time-to-time whether it’s due to disability, ill health, age, financial worries or language barriers.

Our Priority Services Register (PSR) aims to provide this support.

As of 31 March 2024, we had 100,869 customer accounts signed up to our PSR register, an increase of 28,092 in the previous 12 months.

We know there are more people out there who may need our assistance, so we have been working hard to increase the number of customers signed up to the register during 2023/24, whilst also ensuring those who are signed up are receiving the most appropriate service from us.

We have three key measures with targets to hit each year:

• To have nine per cent of our billed, occupied household properties signed up to our PSR register (PSR reach)
• Of those customers signed up for more than two years, to contact 90 per cent of them to make sure they are receiving the most appropriate service (attempted contact)
• Of those customers signed up for more than two years, to directly contact 35 per cent of customers registered on the PSR to make sure they are receiving the most appropriate service (actual contact)

How have we performed?

We have outperformed on all our targets for the year relating to PSR service provision.

1. We have exceeded our target of having 8.9 per cent of billed, occupied household properties signed up to the PSR register, reaching 11 per cent at the end of the year. This has been achieved through working in partnership with regional stakeholders, who work in this field to help identify customers who are eligible for the service, as well as spreading the word through the media and wider awareness campaigns.
2. We also attempted to contact 91.9 per cent of our customers who have been on the PSR for more than two years at least twice.
3. For our PSR customers who have been registered for more than two years, we also have the additional data revalidation targets, to make sure they are still applicable to PSR. These measures target Actual and Attempted contacts for revalidation. During the year, we achieved 51.1 per cent actual contact and revalidation of data against the target of 35 per cent.