Earlier this year, the Government confirmed further dormant assets funding to Fair4All Finance to help advance financial inclusion priorities.

With the Government’s Financial Inclusion Strategy now published, this is an opportune moment to ensure our next programmes and workstreams align with sector needs and deliver long-lasting systems change.

You can read more about our existing strategy and priorities here. We are seeking input from our stakeholders on some key financial inclusion areas as we make decisions about funding allocations over the next few years.

What this consultation is for

We will be designing new funding programmes and workstreams and are looking for ideas and suggestions about what we might prioritise to most effectively deliver our strategic objectives, meeting the priorities of the Dormant Assets and National Financial Inclusion Strategies, and responding to the needs of the sector.

There are 20.3 million people in financially vulnerable circumstances in the UK. Millions of families are excluded and unable to access financial safety nets like affordable credit, insurance and savings. Our mission is to increase the financial resilience and wellbeing of people in financially vulnerable circumstances by increasing the availability of fair and accessible financial products and services.

Our aim is to support initiatives that deliver long-term and sustainable benefits. This includes demonstrable effectiveness or potential in addressing financial inclusion opportunities to achieve long-term systems change, and early-stage approaches where evidence and research are needed to understand what improves customer outcomes.

Our additional dormant assets funding is the English portion of the scheme, meaning funded activity must be delivered in England (organisations operating UK-wide may be eligible where the work supported is specifically focused on England).

The themes we’d like feedback on

We’re inviting responses framed around the following broad areas. Please do respond to any questions or sections that you see as relevant based on your work and expertise. We appreciate your input and we look forward to considering it carefully as we design programmes to ensure that our work can make as much positive impact as possible.

Research and knowledge gaps
We want to understand what data or knowledge gaps in financial inclusion targeted research funding would help close. We’re also interested in best practice for ensuring lived experience insights meaningfully inform policy, research, product design and evaluation.

Benefitting financially vulnerable groups (including equity, diversity and inclusion considerations)
We want feedback on how to ensure equity, diversity and inclusion are at the heart of how we invest, develop policy and programmes. Are there particular financially vulnerable groups or life transition points we should prioritise, and why? Are there learnings from local community initiatives that can be scaled sustainably?

Supporting innovation
We want to hear what forms of support (funding, partnerships, technical expertise) would most effectively accelerate innovation in financial products and services for vulnerable customers, and what barriers currently prevent innovative providers from serving financially excluded markets.

Access to insurance (reducing the protection gap)
We are seeking views on how to increase access to appropriate and affordable insurance for people in financially vulnerable circumstances, and what barriers (regulatory or market-based) need addressing to scale access and provision.

Problem debt – new approaches
Five million people live with problem debt, and we believe high quality debt advice should always be available for people who need it. We are seeking views on new or radical approaches to addressing problem debt, including ideas that could complement existing provision and improve customer outcomes.

Access to banking, digital inclusion and payments
Millions of people still rely on cash and in-person banking services, while digital exclusion can undermine financial inclusion when it comes to managing money day to day, finding the right financial product, and contacting providers. We are interested in views on what approaches or innovations could most effectively improve inclusion and resilience.

Savings
We know people in financially vulnerable circumstances are less able to save than ever before, and that savings are a cornerstone of financial inclusion and resilience. We are seeking views on innovations that could support saving for those with low or volatile incomes, and what would help providers deliver solutions that build long-term resilience.

Open question(s)
Is there anything else we should be considering to achieve lasting systems change to support financial inclusion?