42% of young families are missing out on free support from Yorkshire Water
Recent research discovered that 42% of young families in Yorkshire are unaware of the support available to them from the free Priority Services Register. Despite the Priority Service Register offering a range of support that can be tailored to any family's needs, 56% of families say they are embarrassed to ask for help.
Yorkshire Water urges young families to sign up to its Priority Services Register
- Research reveals nearly half (42%) of young families don’t know they could benefit from the scheme
- Of those who do, a fifth don’t sign up
Yorkshire Water has revealed that almost half (42 per cent) of young families living in the county are not aware that they could access free support offered by the company via its Priority Service Register (PSR). It is now calling for them to sign up.
The PSR is a free service offered by Yorkshire Water to support those in the community who feel they need a helping hand. This could include parents with young children, the elderly, as well as those with hearing and vision impairments or mobility concerns.
Support spans a variety of measures aimed at keeping customers safe and happy, including expedited bottled water delivery if impacted by a water disruption, braille/audio enhanced bills, and advanced notice of planned works.
For those with young children, signing up can remove many of the worries associated with being a new parent; from unexpected knocks at the door through to not having to leave the house for bottled water should there be an outage.
To date, there are 213,000 registered users across the region. However, there remains a lack of awareness and engagement among new parents in particular. Not only are nearly half of this group (42%) not aware that they could benefit from free support, but of those who are, nearly a quarter (21 per cent) choose not to sign up.
Low sign-ups in this demographic could be due to a reluctance to seek help, with more than half of young families in Yorkshire (56 per cent) citing embarrassment as the biggest barrier in asking for help of any kind, followed by pride (35 per cent).
Katrina Coulson, head of central control at Yorkshire Water says; “A significant life change such as becoming a new parent can be a stressful time, and it’s important that young families access the appropriate support – whether they think they need it or not. Needing a helping hand is never something to be ashamed of. We urge people across the county to contact us if you think you might benefit from being registered to our priority services register.”
For further information on the priority service register and to sign up please visit https://www.yorkshirewater.com/bill-account/priority-services-register/