Effective Water Customer Assistance Programs: Utility Strategies to Help Residents Stay Connected

What is a Customer Assistance Program?

A Customer Assistance Program (CAP) is an initiative designed to help low-income and financially vulnerable households pay their water bills and prevent service disconnections. These targeted programs may provide a discount for eligible households, allow flexible payment terms, or offer protections to ensure no household is without water.

According to analysis by the nonprofit, Elevate, discounts for seniors are the most common type of CAP in northeastern Illinois. Senior discounts are relatively easy to implement, requiring only age verification. Other types of CAPs may be tougher to administer but—when targeted appropriately and effectively marketed to eligible households—can yield benefits for the utility, such as lower collections costs and fewer shutoffs.

Water rate design can also help achieve affordability goals. Check out our article on affordable water rates and consider the need to pair multiple interventions for the best results.

Common CAP Types

Customer Assistance Programs can help address water affordability and take many forms, including the following.

1. Bill Discounts: Utilities may offer discounts in a variety of ways. These include billing for consumption at a discounted volumetric rate, applying a set discount to the entire bill, or discounting bills so that they account for no more than a certain percentage of a household’s monthly income.
2. Flexible Payment Plans: Formal and informal payment plans are a common CAP, allowing people with past due bills to spread payments out over subsequent billing cycles. Another type of payment flexibility is budget billing. Customer bills are levelized over billing cycles to allow for greater consistency, which can help families budget better.
3. Emergency Grants: In Illinois, utilities frequently refer eligible residents to townships to receive general assistance or to Catholic Charities and Salvation Army for emergency financial assistance. Utilities can also offer assistance directly. Utility-run programs are often funded by donations from other residents (e.g., allowing people to round up to the nearest dollar when paying their bill) or, more common among larger utilities, with donations from utility employees. These types of assistance are frequently limited to once per calendar year and intended to prevent water shutoffs.
4. Debt Forgiveness: During the pandemic, some utilities offered one-time amnesty programs to forgive past due balances. Formalized programs exist, too, often combined with a bill discount program or other types of assistance. For example, arrearages may be forgiven after a certain number of payments at the discounted rate, or penalties can be waived when consumption-based charges are paid in full. Debt forgiveness offered in this way acts as an incentive for people to make payments while enrolled in a program.
5. Shutoff Protections: Like debt forgiveness, shutoff protections are typically tied to participation in a program. While making discounted payments in an assistance program, for example, the account may be exempt from shutoffs. Utilities may also offer special shutoff protections during extreme weather and for homes with elderly residents, children and infants, and people with serious medical conditions. Utilities should closely evaluate whether shutoffs advance their intended goals. The high number of accounts experiencing repeat shutoffs indicate that underlying water affordability issues are not being addressed by shutoff policies, and utility leaders should explore ways to promote water affordability instead of shutoffs.
6. Water Efficiency: Efficiency programs may provide rebates after residents install eligible water‑saving devices—such as high‑efficiency toilets, showerheads, or smart irrigation controllers—or offer direct installs of these devices to help reduce household water use. These programs improve long‑term affordability rather than providing short‑term relief, which can be especially valuable for low-income families in older homes. For utilities, efficiency programs help manage demand, delay costly infrastructure expansion, and improve system resilience.
7. Administrative Changes: Beyond formal programs, utilities can improve on-time payment through several administrative changes. Offering flexible due dates allows customers to align bills with when they receive a paycheck, while shifting frequency from bi-monthly or quarterly to monthly billing cycles can make payments smaller and more manageable. Similarly, averaging bills over the year (“budget billing”) results in more predictable monthly costs. Finally, utilities should regularly review penalty and fee structures and set reasonable caps, since high late fees or shutoff charges can turn a missed bill into unmanageable debt and ultimately increase utility operating costs.

In the next section, you can see real-world examples of water utilities putting these CAPs into practice.

What Do These Programs Look Like in Practice?

Customer Assistance Programs are no longer rare. In an analysis of publicly available data, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found hundreds of utilities across the country now offer some form of assistance. In fact, EPA’s analysis found that nearly 30% of the utilities surveyed offered at least one form of assistance—and that number has certainly grown since the study was released in 2016.

CAPs are especially common in larger cities—like Philadelphia and Chicago—but small- and medium-sized communities are increasingly offering CAPs. Eligibility typically hinges on income and household size (e.g., 200% of the Federal Poverty Level), but some programs also consider disability status or active enrollment in other aid programs like SNAP or LIHEAP.

Here are a few examples from cities that have made it work:

1. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, offers income-based bill discounts through its Tiered Assistance Program, where eligible households pay no more than 2% to 4% of their monthly income, depending on eligibility.
2. In addition to providing short-term payment plans directly, Seattle Public Utilities partners with PromisePay to offer flexible payment plans. Residents at least $100 in arrears can break up their balance into manageable installments while keeping their water service active. They can select their own payment date and an amount that aligns with their financial situation.
3. In Louisville, Kentucky, residents facing a shutoff can receive bill assistance, offered by the Louisville Water Company through its nonprofit arm, Louisville Water Foundation. These emergency grants are funded primarily through tax‑deductible donations using the “Please Donate” link on the utility’s website. Each year, the utility also contributes funds to the foundation to help sustain the program, resulting in more than half a million dollars in direct bill relief provided annually.
4. Buffalo, New York, operated a pandemic-era Water Amnesty Program that forgave penalties, fees, and interest for residents who enrolled in a 12-month structured payment plan. Eligibility for debt forgiveness was contingent on installation of advanced metering technology and enrollment in automatic monthly billing.
5. In addition to offering eligible residents a 50% discount on water, sewer, and garbage bill charges, the Utility Billing Relief program in Chicago, Illinois, offered shutoff protections for people enrolled in the program. (Notably, Chicago City Council later passed an ordinance that ended water shutoffs for nonpayment of utility bills.)
6. A long‑running San Antonio Water System (SAWS) initiative, Plumbers to People provides free emergency plumbing repairs for low‑income homeowners who cannot afford to fix leaks. Repairs are performed by SAWS‑contracted licensed plumbers, and the program focuses on leaking faucets, running toilets, and broken pipes to improve water efficiency and protect against high bills caused by leaks.
7. The Utility Bill Equal Payment Program in Raleigh, North Carolina, is a budget billing program that lets residents pay the same amount each month, based on the prior year’s metered water, wastewater, and irrigation charges. Administrative considerations like these give households predictable bills and reduce the shock of seasonal spikes in consumption.

How to Get Started

Launching a Customer Assistance Program doesn’t require a massive system overhaul. Here’s a simplified roadmap:

• Assess the need: Use billing data and community input to understand who’s struggling and why. (For example, review these 10 municipal water affordability studies, completed through the Cook County Water Affordability program.)
• Understand authorities: Doublecheck local rules and regulations regarding rate-funded CAPs. Some states have passed statutory language explicitly allowing CAPs, while others are more ambiguous.
• Set clear goals: Are you trying to reduce shutoffs? Help low-income households? Provide emergency relief?
• Choose a program type: Common options include bill discounts, flexible payment plans, debt forgiveness, and shutoff protections.
• Define eligibility: Keep it simple and fair—many municipalities use income thresholds or offer categorical eligibility based on enrollment in other aid programs.
• Secure funding: Options include internal budgets, small ratepayer surcharges, or external grants.
• Launch and evaluate: Start small, track results, and adjust as needed.

For a deeper dive, check out this national review of water affordability programs and policies by Illinois-Indiana Sea Grant as well as the expansive Water Affordability Advocacy Toolkit from the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and the National Consumer Law Center. These resources discuss CAPs, billing dispute resolution, protections for renters, water conservation and efficiency, and much more to help municipal and utility leaders take the next step.

What’s in It for Your City?

As stated in our companion piece on establishing affordable water rates, a combination of interventions is likely needed. SAWS, for example, bundles 14 interconnected types of water affordability assistance into its Uplift program. Likewise, Evanston, Illinois, combines multiple social service benefits in the Access Evanston Program. With one application, eligible residents can receive discounted water and sewer rates as well as discounts on yard waste stickers, parks and recreation program fees, and more.

A well-designed set of CAPs benefits more than just the households it serves. It can:

• Improve on-time payment and revenue stability
• Reduce shutoffs and associated costs
• Strengthen community trust in local government
• Demonstrate leadership on public health and community engagement

Of course, there are challenges—administrative capacity, funding, and political will among them. But if your utility is ready to explore Customer Assistance Programs, there’s a growing network of municipalities, nonprofits, and technical experts ready to help—including right here at Cook County TAP.

Water affordability is a growing challenge, but it’s also an opportunity. An opportunity to lead, to innovate, and to show your community that you’re listening—and acting.