Vulnerability training

​Health, disability, unemployment, bereavement, domestic violence and addiction can all contribute to making someone more vulnerable.

Customers in vulnerable circumstances are especially susceptible to detriment. Your staff need to know how to identify and work with these customers in a way that is both consistent and fair.

This can have a positive impact on your ability to recover debts, employee morale and your reputation as a responsible organisation.

We also offer a refresher course which ensures your staff maintain their knowledge by reinforcing the training they have previously received.

• Key factors that may impact on vulnerability and categories of vulnerability
• Statutory principles under the Mental Capacity Act, including which individuals may act in a legal capacity for the person in debt
• The TEXAS protocol for handling disclosure of sensitive personal information
• The four points of the Compass technique as a tool for understanding the significance of the vulnerability presented
• Different pathways for debtors to obtain free, independent, money advice

• Improve your reputation as a responsible organisation that treats customers fairly
• Gain the skills, tools and confidence to handle customers in vulnerable circumstances fairly and consistently
• Improve your debt recovery rates and broken repayment arrangements, and minimise the likelihood of additional costs
• Meet your legal and regulatory responsibilities under the Mental Capacity Act and Data Protection Act
• Supports all parts of your business (lending, customer service, fraud, retention, collections and digital)

​Health, disability, unemployment, bereavement, domestic violence and addiction can all contribute to making someone more vulnerable.

Customers in vulnerable circumstances are especially susceptible to detriment. Your staff need to know how to identify and work with these customers in a way that is both consistent and fair.

This can have a positive impact on your ability to recover debts, employee morale and your reputation as a responsible organisation.

Effective refresher training is essential as it ensures your staff maintain their knowledge by reinforcing the training they have previously received; it reduces the risks of mistakes by reminding staff of the key techniques to support vulnerable consumers and it helps to foster a culture of continuous learning.

We can work with you and your organisation to develop a half-day refresher session for your staff. It reminds them of the models to use, such as IDEA and TEXAS and ensures they are clear on their responsibilities when supporting your vulnerable consumers.

• The exact objectives for this course will be agreed with you to meet your needs. Below is an example of some of the objectives we can help you to achieve:
  • What to do when dealing with challenging interactions and specific tools and techniques for handling these
  • Recognise the impact of a trigger in your customer or yourself
  • Identify and set important personal and organisational boundaries
  • Ways to de-escalate a challenging situation
  • Reflect on your own advice practice and ways to develop this
  • How to effectively signpost a customer without causing further distress

• Improve your reputation as a responsible organisation that treats customers fairly
• Gain the skills, tools and confidence to handle customers in vulnerable circumstances fairly and consistently
• Improve your debt recovery rates and broken repayment arrangements, and minimise the likelihood of additional costs
• Meet your legal and regulatory responsibilities under the Mental Capacity Act and Data Protection Act
• Supports all parts of your business (lending, customer service, fraud, retention, collections and digital)

To help creditors and frontline staff support bereaved customers, The Money Advice Trust has partnered with Cruse Bereavement Care, the leading national charity for bereaved people in the UK.

Around 1,500 people die in the UK each day, and on average 22 organisations must be contacted following each death. Essential service providers are likely to encounter someone going through a difficult time because of bereavement.

This e-learning will offer you an insight into what your customer may be experiencing both practically and personally and enhance your ability to support them effectively.

• How bereavement and grief can create or exacerbate vulnerable situations
• Helpful phrases and communication skills to use when working with bereaved customers
• Where to signpost people when they need further support
• Ways to practice self-care when personally affected by bereavement.

• Improve your reputation as a responsible organisation that supports customers through life-changing situations and difficult times
• Gain the skills, tools and confidence to support customers experiencing bereavement fairly and consistently
• Meet regulatory expectations under the FCA vulnerability guidance in relation to significant life events
• Improve your reputation as an employer who supports both their staff and customers.

Want to find out more about Cruse Bereavement Care and Bereavement?
Listen to our free ‘Dealing with customer bereavement‘ podcast, recorded last year as part of our ‘Working In A Crisis’ series featuring Andy Langford, Clinical Director at Cruse Bereavement Care.

Data lies at the heart of the FCA’s vulnerability regulations.

Firms need to evidence that the outcomes of vulnerable consumers are as good as those of other consumers.

Firms need to know their vulnerable consumers, hold the right data about them, and use this to help and support them. Firms need to balance the FCA’s expectations on data with those of the ICO, the GDPR, and the Data Protection Act 2018. This course has been developed to address these specific requirements and provide your firm with the knowledge to make sure you meet your responsibilities.

You’ll explore the following topics:

• Processing data (GDPR requirements)
• The challenges of supporting vulnerable customers and meeting GDPR requirements
• What basis can we process data under
• Additional considerations
• Applying GDPR principles to customer scenarios

By the end of this course, learners will be able to:

• Identify the challenges of supporting vulnerable customers and meeting GDPR requirements
• Gain the skills, tools and confidence to handle customers in vulnerable circumstances fairly and consistently
• Improve your reputation as a responsible organisation that treats customers fairly
• Explain the different basis under articles 6 and 9 that can be used to record customer disclosures
• Apply the principles from GDPR to a range of vulnerable customer scenarios.
• Meet your legal and regulatory responsibilities.

Inclusive design is at the heart of regulatory supervision.

Of increasing importance in the conversations about vulnerability – inclusive design is the development of buildings, products, services, or processes that are accessible to all people, regardless of age, disability, or other factors.

Firms needs to be taking into account vulnerability throughout their design process, and mitigating any potential for harm.

This course will help you, and your teams, understand what inclusive design is and how you can use it when designing products and services.

You’ll explore the following topics:

• What is inclusive design and why is it important to product design
• What are the key principles to inclusive design
• Examples of inclusive design already out there
• Applying the principles to a product design project.

By the end of this course, learners will be able to:

• Define what inclusive design is and why it is important when designing products for customers
• Identify what good inclusive design looks like
• Apply inclusive design principles to a product development project
• Improve your reputation as a responsible organisation that treats customers fairly
• Meet your legal and regulatory responsibilities.

Every year one in four adults will experience a mental health problem.

Being aware of the range of mental health conditions and their impact is a vital part of understanding your customers and achieving the right outcomes for your organisation or business.

• What a mental health condition is
• Why it is important to identify mental health conditions and the impact they can have on a customer
• The difference between a range of mental health conditions
• Why customers may not disclose their mental health condition
• How to respond when a customer makes an initial disclosure
• Other techniques for helping customers with different mental health problem

• Improve your reputation as a responsible organisation that treats customers fairly
• Gain the skills, tools and confidence to handle customers in vulnerable circumstances fairly and consistently
• Improve your debt recovery rates and broken repayment arrangements, and minimise the likelihood of additional costs
• Meet your legal and regulatory responsibilities under the Mental Capacity Act and Data Protection Act
• Supports all parts of your business (lending, customer service, fraud, retention, collections and digital)

Firms and their staff play a crucial role in supporting customers in vulnerable circumstances.

However, staff can sometimes be presented with difficult situations that over time can have an effect on their wellbeing both emotionally and professionally.

It is important for your workplace to have measures in place to support your staff so that they can help your customers effectively.

• Why people react the way they do
• Identifying and exploring personal boundaries and triggers
• Practical steps to take when you are in ‘the moment’
• Looking after yourself both during and after an interaction with a vulnerable customers

• Improve your reputation as a responsible organisation that treats staff and customers fairly
• The course is hosted online, providing you with a flexible schedule and environment to suit your staff as they can attend from anywhere
• Improve your overall workplace environment with a more resilient workforce and organisation which can result in increased productivity
• Improve your reputation as an employer who supports staff
• Reduction in staff sickness levels

One in four frontline collections staff report that in the last 12 months they have spoken to at least one customer they seriously believe might be at risk of suicides. These conversations can be challenging and difficult for everyone involved.

The Money Advice Trust has partnered with the National Centre for Suicide Prevention Education and Training, to deliver a course tailored to financial services.

Our programme equips frontline staff with the skills and confidence to intervene. The focus is on immediate safety, not fixing problems or trying to deliver therapeutic interventions. The skills we teach can be mastered by anyone.

• The impact and value of personal and professional experience with suicide
• Barriers that prevent people at risk seeking help
• Prevalence of suicidal thoughts and behaviours
• Identification, talking and keeping customers and staff safe
• Escalation to specialist staff/team managers and external agencies when required
• The Signs of Suicide and the Suicide-Safety Guide
• Partnership working and community resources
• Throughout this course we keep a keen eye on self-care.

Stopping the silence and breaking down the stigma of suicide is a key objective of learning in this course.

• Gain the only national qualification in suicide prevention accredited by City & Guilds ( (option available on completion of full-day course)
• Gain the skills, tools and confidence to help customers with feelings of suicide fairly and consistently
• Meet your legal, regulatory and staff wellbeing responsibilities

Supports all parts of your business (lending, customer service, fraud, retention, collections and digital)

“He called back two days later… and told me that I saved his life. I felt so proud. What he needed was a human being to listen.” – Frontline adviser

A serious illness can have a devastating effect on a person and their family, and staff can find these disclosures particularly challenging.

Recent research shows that frontline collections staff will receive an average of 15 disclosures a month about a customer with a serious illness.

Equipping staff to have these conversations and identify and support people who have a serious illness is a vital part of achieving the right outcomes for your organisation and your customers.

• what is a serious illness?
• What affect does serious illness have on your organisation?
• Common conditions
• How to handle a customer’s disclosure – from initial response to managing the disclosure and adhering to the Data Protection Act
• How to better understand a customer’s situation
• The five components of the TEXAS acronym as a tool for dealing with vulnerable factors
• The four points of the IDEA technique as a tool for understanding the significance of the vulnerability presented
• Strategies for dealing with challenging circumstances, including customers who are in shock, angry or low, customers who may be disabled or carers who make contact

• Improve your reputation as a responsible organisation that treats customers fairly
• Gain the skills, tools and confidence to handle customers in vulnerable circumstances fairly and consistently
• Improve your debt recovery rates and Improve broken repayment arrangements, and minimise the likelihood of additional financial costs, and a worsening of the customer’s mental health
• Meet your legal and regulatory responsibilities under the Mental Capacity Act and Data Protection Act
• Supports all parts of your business (lending, customer service, fraud, retention, collections and digital)

People living with any addiction – be it gambling, alcohol or substance misuse – can have complex and difficult lives. This can easily lead to financial detriment, including over-spending, loss of control and difficulty managing their finances.

Recent research shows that one in four frontline creditor staff find it difficult to talk about the issue of ‘addictions’ with customers – more than any other type of vulnerable situation.

With one in four specialist staff and one in ten frontline staff encountering customers with an addition ‘most days’ or ‘every day’ it is vital staff are able to understand, identify and support customers suffering from an addiction.

• What addiction is, how common it is and how can we help customers deal with it
• What causes addiction and the financial consequences of addiction on customers
• Identifying the cues and signs of addiction
• Understanding why conversations about addiction fail
• Learning where you can get help for a customer with addiction
• The five components of the TEXAS acronym as a tool for dealing with addiction
• The four points of the IDEA technique as a tool for understanding addiction
• Strategies for dealing with challenging circumstances, including customers who may resist or even refuse our help

• Improve your reputation as a responsible organisation that treats customers fairly
• Gain the skills, tools and confidence to help customers in vulnerable circumstances fairly and consistently
• Improve your debt recovery rates and broken repayment arrangements, and minimise the likelihood of additional financial costs
• Meet your legal and regulatory responsibilities under the Mental Capacity Act and Data Protection Act
• Supports all parts of your business (lending, customer service, fraud, retention, collections and digital)

Mental capacity limitations can result in customers having significant problems with understanding, remembering, and evaluating information about credit products they are applying for, as well as communicating a decision about this.

Where not identified, these can result in detriment including borrowing, lending and contracts that result in ‘later downstream’ financial difficulty and problem debt.

This course covers practical steps and actions you can take to identify and support customers with mental capacity limitations (and other decision-making difficulties) during credit applications.

• Identify what ‘mental capacity’ and a ‘mental capacity limitation’ are
• Recognise ways that a mental capacity limitation can affect a customer’s ability to cope with their finances
• Recognise the ways in which a customer with a mental capacity limitation can be identified and supported
• Identify the key principles of working with customers with a mental capacity limitation
• Identify the key components of the BRUCE tool to be able to apply them
• Identify the components of laws and regulations that apply to mental capacity

• Improve your reputation as a responsible organisation that treats customers fairly
• Gain the skills, tools and confidence to handle customers in vulnerable circumstances fairly and consistently
• Improve your debt recovery rates and broken repayment arrangements, and minimise the likelihood of additional costs
• Meet your responsibilities under the Financial Conduct Authority’s regulatory frameworks relating to mental capacity, contracting and decision-making, and arrears (CONC and MCOB), as well as wider UK law
• Supports all parts of your business (lending, customer service, fraud, retention, collections and digital)

Customer vulnerability is high on the energy industry’s agenda. The Commission for Customers in Vulnerable Circumstances, established by Energy UK, has recently called for immediate action to improve support for energy customers in vulnerable circumstances.

The Commission, chaired by Lord Whitty and comprising five Commissioners, including the then Money Advice Trust chief executive Joanna Elson OBE, published its report in May 2019. The report found that despite some good practice, the energy sector is not regularly meeting the needs of customers and that ‘urgent action’ is required. Energy companies need to ensure they have the right systems, processes and staff training to help customers in vulnerable circumstances.

• Understand what is meant by consumer vulnerability
• Understand regulatory requirements and best practice for energy companies
• Explore how to identify customers in vulnerable situations by using appropriate questioning techniques
• Understand the Priority Services Register, who is eligible and what services are available
• Explore what support is available to customers in vulnerable circumstances within your organisation and externally

• Improve your reputation as a responsible organisation that treats customers fairly
• Gain the skills, tools and confidence to handle customers in vulnerable circumstances fairly and consistently
• Improve your debt recovery rates and broken repayment arrangements, and minimise the likelihood of additional costs
• Meet your responsibilities under the Ofgem’s definition of consumer vulnerability and the role of the Priority Services Register as well as wider UK law
• Supports all parts of your business (customer service, retention, collections and digital)

Throughout this programme staff will be given the knowledge and tools to support customers in a variety of vulnerable circumstances. Cases may still arise where the conversation is challenging, and it is not always clear that the best outcome has been achieved.

This session will be tailored utilising a selection of your pre-selected calls that the teams find challenging. Our Subject Matter Expert will unpack these calls and do a sense check with the team to focus on identification of vulnerability, identifying triggers and utilising tools such as TEXAS, IDEA and BRUCE to manage disclosures. We’ll look at setting our own boundaries and recognising the organisational boundaries we all work to. We’ll identify ways to deescalate difficult situations and hold space for people in crisis whilst protecting ourselves.

• Handle challenging interactions using specific tools and techniques for use in the moment
• Recognise the impact of a trigger in your consumer or yourself
• Identify and set important personal and organisational boundaries
• Ways to de-escalate a challenging situation
• Reflect on your own advice practice and ways to develop this
• How to effectively signpost a customer without causing further distress

• Improve your reputation as a responsible organisation that treats customers fairly
• Gain the skills, tools and confidence to handle customers in vulnerable circumstances fairly and consistently
• The course is hosted online, providing you with a flexible schedule and environment to suit your staff as they can attend from anywhere
• Supports all parts of your business (customer service, retention, collections and digital)

We’ve worked in the area of vulnerability since 2011 and have helped over 300 firms, and more than 30,000 staff to deliver the best experience, support and outcomes for their customers. You can download information on our training and consultancy services here.