My career path has been ‘squiggly’. I’ve worked in estate agency, retail banking and energy before joining Phoenix Group in November 2021. I’ve held varied roles in my 30+ years and throughout this time, I recognised that I have a real passion for coaching, mentoring, and developing others. It was while working in the energy sector that I led on initiatives that supported people in vulnerable circumstances, specifically focussed on financial hardship and poor physical and mental health.

This is what really ignited my passion for helping others and ultimately led me to my current role of Vulnerable Customer Lead at Phoenix Group. I use the skills and experiences I’ve gained across my career to have a broad perspective on the challenges consumers face and how Phoenix Group can support people in those key moments that matter.

Why I want to support people who need a helping hand

I’ve experienced vulnerability personally – I’ve had some unexpected redundancies and bereavements that have impacted me and my relationship with financial services, so I understand how support is needed when things get tough.

At Phoenix Group, we know that more than half of our customers could be in vulnerable circumstances and any of us could need a little extra support at times in our lives - that’s why I’m so proud the work I do makes a difference to our customers.

There shouldn’t be stigma around asking for help

Asking for help often has a stigma attached to it so I am proud to be working with our partners Cowry Consulting as well as bringing other financial service providers into the mix to understand the true barriers around people disclosing a support need so together, we can help break that stigma and normalise disclosing needs.

We know, customers will often seek help elsewhere before coming to us. That could be family, friends, their employer, or bank. Helping our customers understand the support we can give them or connecting them to other services such as Citizens Advice or Independent Age for example can make a real difference and give people the help they need.

What I do to support our vulnerability strategy

No two days are ever the same for me, so I remain focussed on ensuring what I do helps to deliver good customer outcomes and helps my colleagues have the tools and knowledge they need to support this. I have a network of Vulnerability Champions in non-customer facing roles who help embed vulnerability best practice into everything we do across our business and who help me embed our Inclusive and Accessible Design principles into product and proposition design and communications.

I love learning and I spend a lot of time absorbing podcasts, books, TED Talks and articles all related to vulnerability. These are shared to colleagues too as part of highlighting best practice. Chris Fitch’s Vulnerability Matters Podcast is a favourite and I love anything by Brene Brown (I’m currently reading Daring Greatly). Connecting with and learning from vulnerability specialists is a great way for me to deepen my knowledge.

I’m also a Vulnerability Champion for the Collaboration Network. Being a champion, I work with other vulnerability practitioners from cross sectors around best practice, emerging trends and how we collaborate for better customer outcomes, recognising that we will all share customers. The network allows me to connect with some great suppliers and partners too and we’ve been fortunate to benefit from their expertise in helping us shape our strategy and development.

The change I want to see

Times are hard for many people and sometimes processes can be overwhelming. The service consumers receive across a range of industries can vary greatly. I’m proud that our colleagues respond to customers with empathy and kindness. I feel that should be non-negotiable for customers of all service providers.

I’d love to see access to benefits and services made simpler and more automated for people. This would help reduce the effort needed during what could be a challenging time and would help people access vital support much quicker.

Also, I’d really love to see cross sector collaboration come to fruition – energy and service providers joining together to offer social tariffs as standard across the board for people who need this without the need to apply individually to every company.

My future aspirations

I’ve loved having a varied career. It’s given me lots of opportunities, the chance to work with many great leaders and learn transferable skills along the way.

Wherever my career takes me, I feel it will always be anchored in supporting customers who need a little more help and removing barriers to help people feel more empowered. I’ll always stay close to coaching and mentoring too, supporting others is a strong thread through everything I do and being able to support others gives me a great sense of pride.

In a perfect world, we will remove the stigma around vulnerability and have a consistent standard across all service providers with easy to access help and solutions to meet everyone’s needs.

Vulnerability and the pension savings gap

Many people working today face huge challenges when it comes to planning and saving for their financial security in retirement. We know that:

• c.17m of adults in the UK aren't saving enough for retirement
• 14% of defined contribution pension savers are on track for the retirement income they want
• 33% of those who think they're on track, are actually facing a shortfall of more than £100,000

Vulnerability can be an additional factor in why people struggle to save enough for retirement. That’s why at Phoenix we’re working hard to understand and respond to the needs of those who may be in vulnerable circumstances. We want our customers to turn to us, knowing that we will care and support them in the moments that matter. This underpins all our work to support vulnerable customers both at Phoenix Group and across the industry.