The mortgage industry works hard to support consumers and make a difference to their lives. This is particularly important when it comes to vulnerable customers. As the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has noted, vulnerability can be a temporary, sporadic or permanent state, and it can be heightened by the actions of firms if they do not act with appropriate care.

For the retirement lending sector, vulnerable customers are a hugely important issue. With the population spending longer in retirement, older customers increasingly face challenges such as cognitive decline, care requirements and susceptibility to scams. These are pressures that we must be aware of.  

Regulatory focus on vulnerable customers emerged in 2015 with the FCA's publication of its Occasional Paper No.8. The FCA felt that many vulnerable customers were not receiving fair treatment from their financial services provider, and the paper aimed to help firms to identify and deal with these customers.  

Engagement with other industries to share best practice and learnings should play an integral role in how we evolve our processes and procedures. Further research on this was published in the recent Competitions Market Authority (CMA) paper, Consumer vulnerability: challenges and potential solutions.

In recent decades, two significant trends have altered the make-up of the UK's population: the increase in overall average age, and ageing within the older population itself. People aged over 65 are the fastest-growing age group in the UK, outnumbering young people under the age of 16.

In the lifetime mortgage market customers tend to fit within the older demographic, meaning that they are more likely than any other age group to experience temporary or long-term vulnerability.

There is no ?one size fits all? approach to identifying vulnerability, and we therefore, as an industry, need to ensure each customer follows the right support route. I believe this can be achieved by getting the treatment of vulnerable customers right in these ways:

1. Identification: developing new ways to identify customer vulnerabilities, including training, call frameworks and listening to customers? stories.
2. Support and protection: finding new ways to protect customers when they need extra assistance, including 24/7 customer helplines and referrals.

It is important to me that when our role in the process ends, the customer has access to other support networks, which is why at Legal & General we have formed a partnership with Royal Voluntary Service to engage with this customer group and offer practical support based on their needs - read our case study to find out more.

By working with partner organisations in this way, we are meeting the FCA's mandate in addressing the needs of vulnerable customers - by being alert and in touch with the needs of customers we, as an industry, have an opportunity to support them and make a real difference to their lives.

Sally Clayton will be speaking at the forthcoming Later Life Lending Conference taking place in London on Thursday, 11 July. View further details and book your ticket here.