Disabled customers face 'unacceptable' levels of financial exclusion

‘It’s crucial that people have access to support to help them overcome day-to-day challenges they might face’ (University of Vermont/PA)

It’s right there. The moment you step towards a bank on any busy UK street you see it – the big shiny button designed to help the physically disabled gain entry to financial services as quickly and easily as the able-bodied.

Online and by phone too, there are myriad tools that are supposed to make access to the world of personal money more straightforward. They may be far from perfect, but the branch adaptations, staff training days and tech developments are a start at least.

But for many of those with less obvious disabilities, the doors may as well be closed, the phone off the hook and the website down.

News last week that thousands of people with Alzheimer’s are being overcharged hundreds of pounds for council tax has prompted renewed warnings that thousands of British consumers – with mental health issues so severe they are officially classed as disabled – are being regularly excluded from the most basic of financial services because their needs are not being catered for.

What about the services available to those with learning difficulties? What about the treatment of those with more fluid challenges; with mental health problems? We all know that money and mental health have a testy relationship – with one regularly playing off the other in a downward spiral of anxiety, depression, debt and even poverty.

“Money and mental health are often linked,” Stephen Buckley, head of information at Mind notes. “If you are struggling to keep control of your money, you may find that it has a negative effect on your mental health. Equally, if you are experiencing a period of mental ill-health you may find that you get into financial difficulties, with three times as many adults with a mental health problem reporting money problems than those without.

“For those of us living with mental health problems, staying well and living a full life depends on much more than the therapies and treatments you may receive through mental health services. It’s crucial that people have access to support to help them overcome day-to-day challenges they might face, such as money worries, which are closely connected to mental health.”

But what about those trying to get through everyday life with an existing impairment that already severely restricts them? While many people dealing with mental illness on a daily basis have no problems managing their money, for those who do, the odds of successfully navigating the huge range of complex products simply to be part of our financially savvy society seem stacked against them.

Earlier this year, the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute warned that more than nine in every ten people with mental health problems said they found it harder to make financial decisions during periods of poor mental health and three quarters avoided dealing with creditors and/or put off paying bills.

People with depression, OCD or PTSD are likely to struggle with short-term memory. This can make it much harder to remember pin numbers or the details of a conversation with the bank.

People experiencing bipolar disorder or ADHD often struggle to resist impulses, and may go on dramatic spending sprees, sometimes funded by credit cards and overdrafts. People with borderline personality disorder or psychosis can find it very difficult to compare options and might struggle to work out which financial products are right for them

Depression, substance dependence, borderline personality disorder and psychosis can all make it more difficult for people to plan ahead, meaning customers may not understand the implications of financial decisions like taking out a loan. And serious anxiety can cause difficulty making telephone calls or opening post, making it harder to deal with financial problems and to keep track of bills.

Many turn to carers to help. Around half of those carers supporting someone with mental health problems help with financial management, the institute has found. But that regularly relies on sharing PIN numbers and online login details which puts customers at greater risk because “banks failed to provide a safe, effective and easy way to involve a carer”.

“Adaptations to support those with mental health problems are rare, even though consumers with these health conditions are three times more likely than those without to be in financial difficulty,” says Helen Undy, head of external affairs at the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute.

“It’s time for the financial services industry to adapt its services to help support people when they’re unwell – one in four of us will experience a mental health condition in any year, so this is not a niche problem: it should be core business.”

“Ensuring that customers in vulnerable circumstances are treated not only fairly but with empathy and sensitivity to their circumstances is a growing priority,” says Bernard Clarke, a spokesperson for UK Finance, the trade body representing finance, banking, payments and markets firms in the UK.

“It is important to recognise that no two vulnerable customers are the same. Vulnerability is a dynamic state, which is affected by personal factors, life events and wider circumstances or relationships, including those between customers and their bank or other financial service providers.”

“The financial services industry has a duty to treat customers fairly across the board, including society’s most vulnerable. The Vulnerability Taskforce, set up in 2015 by ‘the industry’, charities and consumer groups, aims to identify specific policies and practices that can be improved through a joint effort by financial services firms, the industry as a whole, regulators and other bodies.

“The industry is working hard to better serve those who need support but there is no room for complacency,” Clarke adds.

“It is not always easy to detect the signs of vulnerability, and people do not always feel comfortable talking about their personal circumstances. We hope, however, that this taskforce will find ways to improve the experience of people and families when they interact with the financial services sector at a time of need.”

Some organisations are far better at improving their understanding of what it means to be a vulnerable customer than others. Even in those institutions, appropriate training is typically concentrated in specialist teams, rather than all front-line employees, and measures are usually limited to staff training when a series of simple changes could make a big difference.

Such changes include introducing voice recognition to access accounts, offering a written record of telephone conversations or allowing customers to speak to a company on web chat or by email, access for third parties such as carers and family members, and budgeting support.

Indeed, the House of Lords Financial Exclusion Committee is currently awaiting responses from the Government, the Financial Conduct Authority, banks and UK Finance to its report earlier this year that revealed “unacceptable” levels of financial exclusion among those with disabilities, including mental health issues.

It called for a review of reasonable adjustments for disabled customers to be published by next year.

While customers continue to wait for more financial service providers to finally implement adaptations, further support and information about the regulations and policies in place to support disabled and vulnerable financial services customers is available from mental health charity Mind, The Money and Mental Health Policy Institute, the Financial Conduct Authority and, in the case of concerns over specific cases, the Financial Ombudsman Service.