Register Customers

Vulnerable Customers

Vulnerable Customers

At Fleet, we understand that your customers may sometimes require additional support.

Here are some of the ways we can support vulnerable customers:

  • We will do everything we can to understand your individual customer’s circumstances and support their needs
  • We promise to remain open and approachable and communicate with your customer with sensitivity and respect
  • Our communications will remain clear, accessible and easy to understand
  • Our team have received specialist training to ensure they understand how to identify potential signs of vulnerability and how to appropriately handle such situations with care and respect
  • We regularly review and update our policies to help improve the overall customer experience
Notify us of a vulnerability

Support for customers going through difficult times

Everyone is at risk of becoming vulnerable, so whether your customer’s vulnerability is temporary, occasional or permanent, they are often at greater risk of poor outcomes when it comes to dealing with their finances. However, particular care must be taken with applicants and guarantors to ensure they fully understand the commitment they are entering into and the implications of not meeting that commitment.

“A vulnerable consumer is someone who, due to their personal circumstances, is especially susceptible to detriment, particularly when a firm is not acting with appropriate levels of care.”

Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) 

What makes someone vulnerable?

There are a number of factors to look out for which we’ve listed below, along with the characteristics associated with the 4 drivers of vulnerability.

Health conditions or illnesses that affect ability to carry out day-to-day tasks.

  • Physical disability
  • Severe or long-term illness
  • Hearing or visual impairment
  • Mental health condition or disability
  • Addiction
  • Low mental capacity or cognitive disability

Life events such as bereavement, job loss, or relationship breakdown.

  • Retirement
  • Bereavement
  • Income shock
  • Relationship breakdown
  • Domestic abuse (including economic control)
  • Caring responsibilities
  • Other circumstances that affect people’s experience of financial services e.g. leaving care, migration or seeking asylum, human trafficking or modern slavery, convictions

Low ability to withstand financial or emotional shocks.

  • Inadequate (outgoings exceed income) or erratic income
  • Over- indebtedness
  • Low savings
  • Low emotional resilience

Low knowledge of financial matters or low confidence in managing money (financial capabilities). Low capability in other relevant areas, such as literacy or digital skills.

  • Low knowledge or confidence in managing finances
  • Poor literacy or numeracy skills
  • Poor English language skills
  • Poor or non-existent digital skills
  • Learning difficulties
  • No or low access to help or support

For more information, visit the FCA website.

What to do if you have a vulnerable customer 

If you are working with a customer with a vulnerability, or if you believe you have a customer who is showing signs of vulnerability, please let us know as soon as you can. We understand that this is a sensitive matter, but we can only provide support if you share details of your customer’s vulnerability with us.

We will always ensure that we treat your customer fairly and having a vulnerability doesn’t mean that we will automatically turn them down for a mortgage product.

Please remember:

In order to share your customer’s information with us, you will need to ensure you have either obtained their explicit consent to share this information, or that you have a lawful basis under data protection act for doing so.

Explicit consent must be gained to record any information related to the vulnerability as this is classified as special category data.

Consents must be provided freely, clear and specific, informed and unambiguous.

FOR INTERMEDIARY USE ONLY  Fleet Mortgages only sells its mortgage products through authorised brokers and intermediaries. The information contained on this website is, as a result, intended for authorised brokers and intermediaries only. No one else should use this information as a basis for any financial decisions. Please contact your financial adviser. Registered in England No: 08663979