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Protecting vulnerable consumers in the finance sector The finance sector plays a critical role in people’s lives; however, with increasing economic pressures, more consumers are becoming vulnerable and requiring additional support and protection.

Regulators like the FCA have tightened expectations around how businesses identify, support and engage with vulnerable customers. Failure to comply can result in reputational damage, regulatory penalties and customer hardship. But how can organisations balance compliance with commercial priorities while delivering fair outcomes for consumers?

Join industry experts as we explore best practices, regulatory expectations and practical strategies for businesses to proactively identify and protect vulnerable consumers. Gain actionable insights on:

- The latest regulatory landscape at the FCA
- Effective strategies for identifying and supporting vulnerable customers
- Case studies showcasing successful industry approaches
- How technology and data can enhance consumer protection

Join this webinar to learn how to strengthen your compliance strategy, improve customer engagement and safeguard both consumers and your organisation’s reputation.

Register now to stay ahead of regulatory expectations and build a more consumer focused business.

30/4/2025

10:30am BST

1.3 hours

Harnessing data for regional impact: empowering local leaders to drive change Devolution is one of the core missions of the new government, promising a strong focus on giving local areas more control over services. To tackle economic inactivity, and with many people across the UK needing support, it’s vital that local authorities deliver effective, targeted interventions. The success of tailored, region-specific approaches depends on how well local areas can harness data to drive change.

Local organisations, from Mayoral Combined Authorities to county councils, need to deliver these crucial services. Accessing and using the data insights required to implement efficient and effective programmes is a challenge and, without localised data, decision making can become less accurate. This leads to inefficient resource allocation and missed opportunities to reach those who need help the most.

Data analysis offers the key to overcoming these challenges. By harnessing the power of local data, authorities can get the accurate insights they need to target support where it will be most effective. With the right insights, local areas can design and deliver services that are more tailored, timely and impactful, ensuring the right residents get the right support at the right time.

Proven results from current data led initiatives already show the transformative potential of this approach.

Join this webinar to hear from guest speakers who have successfully implemented data driven campaigns. They will showcase real world examples of how they have come together to achieve measurable outcomes.

We’ll also explore how these data insights can be applied to address key issues like economic inactivity, youth unemployment and social isolation to deliver lasting change across regions.

21/5/2025

10:30am BST

1.3 hours

How East Riding of Yorkshire Council grew the income of 15,700 households by nearly £13 million

Challenge

Improve the financial resilience of residents and tackle arrears using limited resources

Solution

LIFT platform easily identified households in need of extra support

Impact

Return on investment of £416 for each £1 spent was achieved

Due to high workloads with the team and huge demand for our Your Money team, who offer FREE confidential advice to residents to maximise their incomes, we had to carefully select the cohorts to target, based on minimal impact to the teams. As such, we regularly target those groups to claim benefits such as Pension Credit or additional support through the WaterSure tariff. It’s excellent to see the result and the impact this is making to our residents and to the council services we provide.

Challenge: Improve the financial resilience of residents and tackle arrears using limited resources

In late 2020 East Riding of Yorkshire Council had arrears worth over £3.2 million:

Over £2 million in council tax arrears
Over £960,000 in housing benefit overpayments
Over £252,000 in rent arrears

At the same time, 42% of residents were living below the poverty line.

Directed by its Financial Inclusion Strategy the council sought to increase the financial resilience of residents by targeting support to people in arrears, and encouraging the take up of unclaimed benefits, social tariffs and related support.

However, in order to put their plans into practice, they needed to generate impact without placing extra administrative strain on staff. This needed to be done whilst also managing demand for other council services and administering the government’s COVID response grants for households and businesses.

Solution: LIFT platform easily identified households in need of extra support

Councils can use Policy in Practice’s Low Income Family Tracker (LIFT) to proactively identify households who are struggling and offer them support. LIFT makes it easy to see which resident groups are best suited to different interventions, based on their household characteristics.

Offering proactive support enhances financial resilience by preventing debt and arrears. Boosting household income helps residents stay financially secure for longer, potentially reducing long term costs for the council in areas like housing and social care budgets.

The council’s revenues and benefits team used LIFT to identify 15,700 households missing out on support. Armed with this information they launched 24 separate campaigns between 2020 and 2023 to tell the families of their benefit entitlement and encourage take up.

Households were contacted by letter or email and, in some wards where benefit take up was particularly low, social media campaigns were also carried out. The council’s Your Money team also contacted people in person or over the telephone with the offer of a full benefit check and debt advice.

Benefit take up campaigns carried out include:

Pension Credit take up campaigns (repeated six times)
Severe Disability Premium of Housing Benefit take up campaign
WaterSure and social tariff take up campaign
Proactive targeting of Discretionary Housing Payments

Impact: Return on investment of £416 for each £1 spent was achieved

The 24 campaigns that delivered £12.9 million to 15,700 residents in East Riding are broken down below.

1. Pension Credit: over £4,800 gained per household, on average

Between February 2021 and July 2023 the council secured over £2.9 million for 623 households as a result of six Pension Credit take up campaigns. This consists of:

£1,631,901 in yearly Pension Credit payments
£560,700 in 2023 Cost of Living payments
£404,950 in 2022 Cost of Living payments
£358,392 in backdated Pension Credit
£35,775 saved by 225 households now getting a free TV licence

Importantly, 12 carer households were also included in this group. Boosting carers’ income can help them to care for longer and delay or reduce adult social care costs to the council.

Our research shows that the average care package cost is £40,000 so this means that East Riding’s Pension Credit take up campaigns successfully delayed or reduced future care packages that would have otherwise cost £480,000.

The Pension Credit take up campaign was repeated six times over three years to encourage people to apply and to capture people who became newly eligible.

2. Severe Disability Premium (SDP) of Housing Benefit: over £3,600 gained per household, on average

The council identified 40 households that were missing out on Severe Disability Premium. After helping them to claim these households were awarded over £22,000 a year as well as one-off backdated amounts totalling £11,000.

3. WaterSure: £180 gained per household, on average

Around 2,300 households took up £418,000 in support for their water bills through the WaterSure scheme. East Riding’s campaign targeted nearly 8,000 eligible families and achieved an estimated 30% take up rate.

4. Proactive targeting of Discretionary Housing Payments: over £340 gained per household, on average

When the £20 uplift to Universal Credit was removed the council contacted around 140 tenants with arrears and no savings and invited them to apply for Discretionary Housing Payments. After 18 months an extra £47,500 income was secured for this group and arrears were reduced by £7,000. Crucially, none of these households have moved into temporary accommodation since the start of the campaign.

For every £1 invested the council saw a return of £416, boosting the income of residents

Income secured

LIFT campaigns have put £12.9 million into the pockets of residents across East Riding of Yorkshire since 2020.

The campaigns outlined above have brought in £3.4 million each year since 2020. The 15 other campaigns carried out using LIFT generated an additional £9.5 million and included helping eligible families to secure a Warm Homes discount, Household Support Grant or Emergency Assistance.

Arrears reduced

As a result of their LIFT campaigns and follow up work East Riding calculated that, by December 2022, they had reduced arrears for residents on Housing Benefit and/or Council Tax Support by over £650,000. This consists of:

£50,000 less in rent arrears
£481,200 less in Council Tax arrears
£121,412 less in Housing Benefit Overpayments

The use of LIFT has meant that the reach of one small team has stretched to make a large impact on residents. The platform has also helped East Riding to deliver its Financial Inclusion Strategy and its priority to ‘Protect the Vulnerable’.