Insights ¦ Help! Support Needs Guide (2nd Edition, Nov 2025)

Key Take Aways

• Recognising the support needs of disabled and vulnerable consumers is critical for financial services to reduce harm and promote inclusivity.
• Support encompasses any actions that facilitate access, understanding, and benefit from essential services, including communication adjustments, meeting arrangements, and accessibility in delivery channels.
• The guide lists over 120 types of support needs, highlighting the breadth of adjustments required across different interaction points.
• Person-centred support, reflecting individual variations in needs, is essential; assumptions based solely on groupings can be unhelpful.
• Many support needs are common across different disabilities and circumstances, enabling services to design more inclusive offerings efficiently.
• Multiple regulatory frameworks, including the Equality Act 2010 and mental capacity legislation, underpin the legal obligation to provide accessible support.
• Data sharing and ‘Tell Us Once’ tools are pivotal for reducing fragmentation, enabling consumers to disclose needs once and have them recognised across multiple services.
• Commercial benefits are linked to support provision, with disabled consumers often citing exclusion and limited choice as barriers to retention and loyalty.
• Support needs vary across interaction points, from written communication adjustments to accessible transport and service interruption planning.
• The guide underscores that many support solutions are design-based, ideally implemented at the systems or journey level, rather than through individual adjustments alone.
• Risk assessment, resource availability, legal obligations, and practicality are key factors in prioritising support needs.
• Learning from sectors like transport regulation and utilities can inform financial services’ approach to accessible design and support infrastructure.

Key Statistics

• Approximately 14 million adults in the UK are disabled, 25 million are in a vulnerable situation, and 4 million provide unpaid care.
• 40% of disabled adults report being unable to access or use essential services due to a lack of support or reasonable adjustments.
• 70% of vulnerable consumers experience issues during interactions with service providers, with 23% reporting problems caused by negative life events.
• The combined spending power of households with at least one disabled person was estimated at £274 billion in 2017/18; this figure has been updated to approximately £446 billion for 2023/24.
• 75% of disabled consumers believe UK businesses are losing out because their services are not inclusive.
• Over 40% of disabled consumers report limited choices due to unmet access needs, including switching providers due to accessibility issues.
• The Purple Pound’s value increased by nearly 30% between 2015 and 2024, driven by inflation and an increase in the number of disabled households.

Key Discussion Points

• The importance of designing services proactively with diverse disabilities and needs in mind to mitigate risks of exclusion.
• Supporting consumers efficiently requires understanding individual preferences, circumstances, and support needs, avoiding assumptions based on group characteristics.
• Practitioners must balance the legal, regulatory, and practical considerations when prioritising which support needs to meet.
• The significance of legal frameworks such as the Equality Act and mental capacity legislation in shaping support obligations.
• The role of data sharing initiatives like ‘Tell Us Once’ and support registers in reducing unnecessary disclosure fatigue and fragmentation.
• The potential for commercial advantage through inclusive design, improving customer retention, and enhancing brand reputation.
• The necessity of systemic, rather than solely individual, adjustments—such as accessible interfaces and communication channels—applied at the journey or system level.
• The critical nature of service continuity planning during outages or emergencies for consumers with specific medical needs.
• Cross-sector learning from transport and utilities regulation to inform accessible delivery and interaction strategies.
• The value of fostering collaborative efforts across sectors to develop comprehensive support offerings rather than duplicated or inconsistent measures.
• The importance of embedding support needs into organisational decision-making, including resource allocation and support prioritisation.
• The aim of ongoing, community-informed evolution of support needs lists and systems to capture emerging or unaddressed requirements.

Document Description

This article serves as a comprehensive guide for senior managers in financial services, outlining the diverse support needs of disabled and vulnerable consumers. It details the range of adjustments required across multiple interaction points—from written communication to service delivery and transport—highlighting system-level solutions, regulatory context, and opportunities for inclusive growth. The article emphasises the importance of proactive, person-centred design aligned with legal standards and industry best practices, advocating for collaborative, data-driven approaches to support all consumers effectively.