TWO pensioners flooded out of their home in Normandy Crescent have been given just £25 a week by Thames Water to cover their expenses.

William and June Hillier were driven out of their Normandy Crescent home after a water main running behind the street burst on September 23.

The couple stayed with their daughter Jayne Hillier for three weeks after the disaster before finding temporary accommodation in a ground-floor flat.

They filed a claim to cover their living expenses with the water giant for those first three weeks and were stunned to receive just £150 between them.

That is the equivalent of £25 per week each from the company – which last year posted a pre-tax profit of £259m – and then it initially turned down their request.

Mr Hillier was also angry when he compared the company’s pay-out when it put up other residents in hotels.

The grandfather-of-10, who has lived at his Cowley home for more than 60 years, said: “Our daughter took time off work and spent hours a day travelling in her car and chasing things to try to make life a bit easier.

“Just because it’s my daughter, I don’t think it’s right that she had to put up with us. Other people were living on £1,000 a week.

“Book yourselves into a hotel and it will cost you nothing. Be a good member of society and you will get £25.”

Thames Water spokesman Stuart White said in a statement: “We’ve worked hard to treat all our customers equally and fairly throughout, with each claim judged on its own merits.”

Last September the couple, who have been married for 63 years, woke at about 5.30am to the sounds of sirens and shouting before seeing gallons of water gushing into their front garden.

They were forced upstairs until firefighters rescued them on a life raft and later directed to refuge at Blackbird Leys Leisure Centre along with other affected families. Mr Hillier said since the disaster, the couple have been haunted by fears he would suffer a heart attack, just as he did when the pipe first burst in 2007.

The 86-year-old added: “It was seven months of worry, despair and wondering.”

The former lorry driver said since last September he and former care worker Mrs Hillier, 83, have had little help from Thames Water.

Mr Hillier said a request to Thames Water for compensation was initially refused but after a number of phone calls the water board agreed to pay the family a total of £150.

He said the Thames Water staff member responsible for making the decision should be made to explain his judgement but the company refused to explain why the family had been offered so little.

Fifteen houses and eight flats in the street were flooded last September, with another 27 houses cut off from the water supply. Replacing 2km of the 24-inch cast iron pipe should be completed by December.