"There’s no doubt that being a caregiver is a major life event. We need to understand the implications of this to ensure that caregivers receive the service and support they need."
- Johnny Timpson OBE, chairman of MorganAsh
MorganAsh has analysed data from various organisations working in insurance, credit, debt, mortgages, and financial advice to assess customer vulnerability.
The most frequently reported life events amongst vulnerable customers are bereavement, divorce or separation, and caregiving responsibilities. Moreover, the most common health-related vulnerabilities were alcohol dependency, diabetes, learning difficulties, mobility issues, and hearing impairments.
Roughly 9% of women and 7% of men highlighted the challenges that come with caregiving responsibilities, corresponding with recent figures published by Reframe Cancer.
Of the employed caregivers to cancer patients surveyed (442), 57% felt entirely unprepared to care for their loved ones when they took on the role. 63% said the emotional impact of caring for someone with cancer has made it difficult to keep working.
Discussing these findings, Andrew Gething, managing director at MorganAsh (pictured), said, “Life events such as divorce or separation and bereavement were always likely to be at the top, but we didn’t expect to find caregiver issues and potential financial coercion so high.
“When considering how to manage customer vulnerability, conversation often focuses on visible conditions such as blindness, financial distress, or consumer understanding. With clear challenges around financial resilience and poor health (particularly for unpaid caregivers), we need to build a complete picture for the best chance of mitigating these difficulties.”
Johnny Timpson OBE, chairman of MorganAsh, added: “The Department for Work & Pensions (DWP) has many questions to answer when you consider the appalling scandal surrounding carers allowance. Not only are more people losing this important financial lifeline, but many are falling into negative budgets, as a broken system relies on overworked and overstretched caregivers to self-report when they have overclaimed.”
Last year, The Guardian reported that a 92-year-old with dementia was told by the DWP to repay £7k in disability allowance – over a third of her life savings – because she hadn’t informed them that her daughter had begun receiving carer’s allowance.
Shortly after, Johnny resigned from the Prime Minister’s Dementia Friendly Communities Champion Group, disagreeing with the DWP’s stance. At the time, he said, “If there was ever a case for DWP applying its own policy, particularly in relation to people with disabilities and unpaid caregivers, then it’s this.”
“In short, caregivers are under immense pressure, and Financial Services must step up where the government continues to fall short. With the right assessment, firms can provide the right recommendations and support, as well as intervene earlier to determine if needs have changed,” Johnny continued.
“There’s no doubt that being a caregiver is a major life event. We need to understand the implications of this to ensure that caregivers receive the service and support they need.”
Aaron Dryden, care experience lead at Yurtle, told Protection Reporter that this data “confirms what we at Yurtle know to be the case; caregiving responsibilities have a profound impact on health & wellbeing, and the extent to which populations are caring comes as a surprise to many.”
He said: “This is often because caregivers don’t come forward or share about their challenges, which can be due to privacy around these matters as well as a degree of denial, particularly where caregiving isn’t going well or the caregiver is coming to terms with an increasing challenge, such as caring for a loved one with dementia.”
“Caregiving can, of course, be intersectional, and the findings that caregivers also face increased physical, mental and financial health challenges should provide a compelling case for support,” Aaron concluded.
