With the sheer volume of sales material and associated specifications and terms and
conditions produced by large organisations as part of their contractual acceptance
processes, little thought is often given to those individuals with low basic skill sets within the
UK.
There are many individuals with low grasps of numerical and literacy ability in addition to
other inherent vulnerabilities.
There are approximately five million people in England with low literacy capability and eight
million with poor numeracy ability.
Therefore, contracts and offers need to be developed to allow for the above situations. If a
financial product cannot be easily understood this could become a barrier to one of the
groups identified above.
Individuals with such difficulties often find it harder to understand and compare prices and
deals. Together with bill formats and how to pay. For those of us who have no difficulties
these issues can often be overlooked. But without due thought and correct processes being
adopted by an organisation selling such products, barriers may remain in place that create
significant difficulties for vulnerable groups.
BS18477 can assist with these issues. The Standard has clear sections on planning, design,
and development of inclusive service provision.
With careful application an organisation’s product offering can be created using the best
practice Standard as a template and staff adequately trained in the deployment of
processes to assist vulnerable customers with low basic skill sets.
For further information and to book your BS18477 survey please contact: Marcus J Allen at
Thamer James Ltd. Email: [email protected].
Marcus has twenty years’ experience in delivering Governance, Risk and Compliance
solutions to over two hundred organisations within the UK. Marcus holds the respected
Diploma in Governance, Risk and Compliance from the International Compliance Association
and holds a master’s degree in Management Learning & Change from the University of
Bristol.