Recover the arrears without failing a vulnerable customer
Firstsource separates can't-pay from won't-pay with affordability-led decision engines that lift collections by 50%, and evidence fair treatment to the regulator.
WHY THIS MATTERS
Arrears are climbing to record highs
Energy and water debt are at record levels, enlarging high-volume caseloads and the cost of fair, compliant collections.
Water arrears
£2.1B
Household water debt in England and Wales stood at about 2.1B pounds, with about 2.5M households in arrears. Water companies continue managing rising unpaid balances.
Ofwat, Analysis of household customer debt, published January 2025
Record debt
£4.55B
Great Britain household energy debt and arrears reached a record level of about 4.55B pounds by the end of 2025, up about 18% on the year. Utility servicers face record early-stage caseloads.
Ofgem, Debt and arrears indicators, 2025
Energy arrears
$23B
US household utility debt climbed to about $23B by mid-2025, up 31% since the end of 2023, with roughly 1 in 6 households already falling behind. High-volume arrears are the new normal.
National Energy Assistance Directors Association (NEADA), 2025
PROVEN OUTCOMES
Recovery and fair treatment, rising together
Affordability-led servicing beat the incumbent supplier, lifted collections, and raised NPS at the same time, with every interaction evidenced for the regulator.
£43M
energy debt recovered
For a top-4 UK energy supplier, data-driven, fair-treatment collections returned £43M across 2 million-plus customers.
96%
more than incumbent
For a major UK water utility, a bespoke early-engagement journey reached a 106% liquidation rate, recovering £9M.
+70
increase in NPS along collections
For a UK energy supplier, the integrated arrears program that lifted collections 50% also cut complaints 50% and reached a +70 NPS, so recovery and conduct improved together.
£9M
water debt recovered
For a major UK water utility, a bespoke early-engagement journey recovered 9M pounds over seven years. Liquidation reached 106% against the second-place competitor.
Deep Domain SOLUTIONS
Stage-aware, digital-first collections, operationalized end to end
From early-stage arrears through specialist and legal collections each solution works a stage while protecting vulnerable customers and proving fair treatment.
Recover written-off arrears fairly
We recover aged and final-bill energy and utilities arrears on a contingency basis, including closed and difficult-to-contact accounts, while maintaining compliance and customer fairness.
Learn more about third-party collections
Prioritize and prove fair recovery
We combine scalable operations, rigorous governance, and transparent reporting to help clients improve collections' outcomes while maintaining regulatory compliance and customer trust.
Learn more about real-time reporting and optimization
Escalate cases where it is justified
Not every account can be resolved through standard channels. For those that require escalation, we help clients navigate the process responsibly, compliantly, and with appropriate customer safeguards.
Learn more about legal collections
Treat vulnerable customers responsibly
Fair customer treatment isn't an afterthought. It's embedded into the way collections are managed, governed, and continuously monitored across the operation.
Learn more about our compliance protocols
CLIENT SPOTLIGHT
How the right incentives outperformed an established supplier
A leading UK energy supplier needed stronger early-stage collections across a high-volume residential portfolio without compromising fair treatment. The incumbent set the performance bar.
We enriched account data, deployed real-time management dashboards and a collections-specific dialler, and aligned a bespoke incentive model to results. In trials we outperformed the incumbent by 96% at a return of 21.17 pounds for every pound spent.
We enriched account data, deployed real-time management dashboards and a collections-specific dialler, and aligned a bespoke incentive model to results. In trials we outperformed the incumbent by 96% at a return of 21.17 pounds for every pound spent.
96%
more than incumbent
How we deliver
Every arrear worked on its own terms, digitized for portfolio scale
Digital self-serve carries the scale, while affordability and vulnerability flags on every call keep collections inside Ofgem, Ofwat, Consumer Duty, and other regulatory organizations.
Reach customers on the channels they actually use
Most outreach to utilities and energy customers runs through digital channels, and across client brands up to 90% of cash is collected digitally rather than through live advisors. Voice is layered in only where it adds the most value.
- Digital-first channel mix
- 100's of millions of outreach a year
- Behavioral messaging
- Best-time-to-contact
- Lower cost-to-collect
One coordinated conversation across every channel
Voice, two-way SMS, email, web chat, and letters are orchestrated for each account across utilities and energy portfolios. Compliance-approved templates and A/B-tested workflows keep every interaction consistent, compliant, and fast to deploy.
Let customers resolve on their own, around the clock
A secure 24/7 portal lets utilities and energy customers set up plans and pay without an advisor, and up to 92% of customers self-serve through the platform. Friction drops at the point of resolution.
- Digital wallet payments
- Offers adapt by bucket
Recover the debt a standard script cannot
The hardest utility balances need specialist handling: prepayment and PAYG-meter arrears, occupier and live-debt recovery, moved-home and gone-away tracing, and high-balance, multi-account debt. Dedicated teams pursue these with the regulatory awareness to recover without tipping into conduct risk.
INSIGHTS
Latest from the Firstsource team
Insights from the field, real operations, real outcomes, and perspectives from the people making it work in live operations.
Case Study
How a multi-state US electric utility accelerated $305M through digital outreach
A large, multi-state US electric utility partnered with Firstsource to modernize its collections and customer outreach operations through digital communications. The objective was to supplement existing mailed and field-based processes with timely, electronic outreach that could expand customer response windows, encourage self-serve payments, and reduce reliance on field activity.
Contact us
Arrears are structural. Fair recovery is built.
We will evaluate your portfolio and show you where recovery moves first, without breaking regulations or compliance.
- An operator diagnoses your portfolio, not an advisor who hands off the work.
- The program is built around your channel mix and your regulators, not a generic model.
- We underwrite outcomes.