Understanding Vulnerability
Any one of us could find ourselves in vulnerable circumstances – and we want you to know that our advisers, coaches and support teams are trained to support you.
Vulnerability
The “V-word”, vulnerability, is a lot more widespread than many of us realise.
Many of us have spent days or nights worried about money, the future, our job and more. Vulnerability, however, goes a lot deeper and also considers our financial, mental and physical wellbeing. The FCA defines a vulnerable client as:
“Someone who, due to their personal circumstances, is especially susceptible to harm, particularly when a firm is not acting with appropriate levels of care”
Vulnerable circumstances
There are four key things which may increase the risk of being vulnerable:
- Health: health conditions or illnesses that affect the ability to carry out day-to-day tasks
- Life events: major life events such as bereavement, job loss or relationship breakdown
- Resilience: low ability to withstand emotional or financial shocks
- Capability: low knowledge of financial matters or low confidence in managing money (financial capability) or low capability in other relevant areas such as literacy or digital skills
Characteristics of these four key drivers are shown in the table below.
| HEALTH | LIFE EVENTS | RESILIENCE | CAPABILITY |
|---|---|---|---|
| Physical disability | Retirement | Inadequate or erratic income | Low knowledge or confidence in managing finances |
| Short or long-term illness | Bereavement | Over indebtedness | Poor literacy, numeracy skills |
| Hearing or visual impairment | Income shock | Low savings | Poor English language |
| Mental health condition | Relationship breakdown | Low emotional resilience | Poor digital skills |
| Addiction | Domestic abuse (including economic control) | Learning difficulties | |
| Low mental capacity | Caring responsibility | No or low access to help and support | |
| Other circumstances (care, asylum, human trafficking, slavery, convictions) |
Any of the above could occur at any one time, or several could occur all at once. When we serve our customers, we do our best to take these signals into account and adapt our approach as much as possible.
Octopus Money has measures in place to distinguish between actually vulnerable and potentially vulnerable consumers. We also consider if a vulnerability is permanent (e.g. a physical disability or life-limiting illness) or if a vulnerability is hopefully temporary in nature (e.g. emotional or financial resilience following a divorce).
Finding support
Talking about the circumstances around vulnerability can be hard – our teams are trained to work with you, discuss options, external support (e.g. charities) and other ways to help.
In addition, we also have access to expertise from within the Octopus Group. This includes Octopus Legacy, who specialise in wills, probate and power of attorney, and Amicable, who specialise in divorce and relationship breakdown.
We will record any specific requests from customers to ensure that we continue to meet your needs in any ongoing contact.
We encourage all of our clients to stay in regular contact with us and to inform us of any changes in their needs. We will also proactively keep in contact with all clients where there is an ongoing agreement and will ensure that we continue to meet each individual’s needs and ensure they are treated fairly.
We recommend that customers be scam-aware and where they are able to access the internet, visit the Friends Against Scams website at www.friendsagainstscams.org.uk where they will find a wealth of information. Friends Against Scams is a National Trading Standards initiative, which aims to protect and prevent people from becoming victims of scams.
If your circumstances have changed or if you’d like us to adjust how we support you (from the words we use to the size of our font), please contact us here.
