Wednesday: Working Together
17 January 2024
Finding solutions to support our customers is so important to us, but we know we can’t do this alone. We work with several partner organisation across everything we do, from delivering clean drinking water to homes, to helping raise awareness of the financial support we have on offer for customers.
Cymuned is a financial support offering from Welsh Water, which aims to help working households who are struggling to afford the essentials, like their water bill. We work in partnership with Citizens Advice, Warm Wales and StepChange Debt Charity to deliver this fund, which gives eligible households a three month ‘charge free’ period, which equates to a discount of around £120 based on an average annual bill.
Maria is a Welsh Water Customer from Rhyl who was one of the first to access the Cymuned Fund support. She said: "I work for a homeless shelter so there’s not usually much financial support available to me as I have a small income. I was told about the Cymuned Fund by my local Citizens Advice team, as I was feeling a lot of pressure making monthly payments on my essentials.
"I applied for Cymuned and was successful after an income and expenditure assessment – it’s helped massively and took a lot of pressure off me. I’m so glad to see this much needed support for working people who are finding rising costs so hard to keep up with."
Joanna Seymour Director of Partnerships and Development at Warm Wales said: “Warm Wales has worked closely with Welsh Water supporting residents with the introduction of the Cymuned Scheme. We have been able to support more residents who would not be eligible for HelpU for example. This has been a big help for many who feel that there is a lack of support for them. I would encourage anyone who is finding it hard to manage to make payment for your bills to reach out.”
For more information on Welsh Water’s Cymuned scheme, and how to see if you’re eligible, visit here.