FEELING THE SHOCK
SHARING DATA TO PROTECT VULNERABLE CONSUMERS

VRS

The potential impact of the cost-of-living crisis has sent out shockwaves, maybe because we are all going to be really hit in the pocket, but have we been limping towards this for years? Have we been unwittingly making people’s situation worse while patting ourselves on the back for talking about vulnerable customers and achieving the right outcomes?

There is no master plan to identify those in society who are the most vulnerable nor is there a government champion spearheading the quest to make sure that we are targeting those in the most difficulty, to ensure they have access to the help that is available to them.

We have known forever that mental health and financial difficulties are intrinsically linked; we know that there are millions of pounds of unclaimed benefits; we know that ‘thin credit files’ and financial exclusion have been a fact of life for decades; we know that it is almost impossible to justify that the most financially disadvantaged are the ones that have to use pre-payment meters. We can trot out endless facts but what have we really done to address it?

We have appointed lots of people who have responsibility for vulnerable customers and we have done plenty of talking. But do these people have the mandate to make changes? Simultaneously, we have made life much more difficult, we have moved people to digital channels who are ill-equipped to deal with them. We have strengthened our authentication processes to meet data protection expectations while rendering it almost impossible for carers to act on someone’s behalf. We have stripped out regulated credit options with the demise of numerous high-cost short-term credit providers and, with them, many people’s first foot on the credit ladder has vanished into the ether. Jargon and terminology have evolved to such a degree that only the most financially capable have a chance of keeping up to speed.

Little has been done to identify who needs help, who is vulnerable, who should be targeted for support or who is likely to fall victim to a loan shark or coercion. If a person can navigate their way through complicated websites, manage to hit on the right person to speak to, then maybe they will be lucky in getting help, that is if they are brave enough to put their head above the parapet. Meanwhile, we have people spiralling into debt and becoming increasingly inert because of the stress and stigma attached.

We need to share data about vulnerable people centrally. Currently, there are small pots of information held about certain aspects of their circumstances. This needs drawing together to complement the financial status information we can already access so that we can support people in the right way and form a more complete picture.

Financial hardship can be coupled with many different factors such as mental health, coercion or addiction. How can we treat people in the right way if we don’t know the facts? How can we lead people to gain the specific support they need?

What can we do as organisations? Don’t assume our involvement isn’t necessary yet. Consumer Duty is telling us otherwise. For organisations to have the incentive to share data, it needs to be used by service providers and, therefore, getting on board with data sharing now is imperative. We’re already long overdue.