With 10.4% Industry-Wide Payment Assistance Participation, Utilities Seek To Improve Verification and Outreach Strategies To Vulnerable Customers

By Stacey Bailey, Vice President

While 29.5% of residential customers reported having trouble paying their power bill, a key benchmark in Chartwell’s Vulnerable Customer Utility Industry Survey shows that only 10.4% of customers participate in payment assistance programs.

Identifying and qualifying vulnerable customers for payment assistance continues to be a major challenge cited by utilities, especially because customers’ financial situations can change quickly in an uncertain economic environment. Chartwell’s Vulnerable Customer Utility Industry Survey asked utilities to rank verification programs in order of effectiveness.

Using SNAP or food stamp applications was one of the verification strategies ranked “most effective” by those utilities using this method. However, only 20% of the utilities responding to Chartwell’s survey said they were currently using SNAP as a verification method for payment assistance qualification. SNAP may present an opportunity for utilities to improve the verification experience for customers while also gaining efficiencies for utilities.

Learn more about the Chartwell Vulnerable Customer Leadership Council by contacting Tim Herrick.