Addressing existing challenges such as lack of financial education, support for savings, and access to affordable credit requires a joined-up approach that draws on the expertise, resources, and reach of governments, regulators, industry and civil society.
The IFoA is currently collaborating with Fair4All Finance on a home contents insurance pilot, with the aim of improving financial inclusion and resilience in insurance. Through the pilot led by Fair4All Finance in partnership with IFoA members and other sector specialists, housing associations will offer home contents insurance to their tenants on an opt-out basis.
The IFoA has been campaigning on financial inclusion for a number of years. This includes work on the poverty premium in insurance, thought leadership on the cashless society, and the ongoing Great Risk Transfer (GRT) campaign.
Paul Sweeting, IFoA President, said: “There are many positive elements of the Financial Inclusion Strategy which the IFoA supports. It is encouraging to see our pilot, developed with Fair4All Finance, explicitly mentioned in the strategy. We believe this pilot is a well-designed intervention to tackle the lack of access to affordable contents insurance. We now need the UK Government to go further by defining clear metrics which outline what success looks like. This will ensure that we are truly helping individuals overcome the barriers to financial inclusion.”
Jake Attfield, Head of Strategy, Fair4All Finance, said: “We’re pleased to be working with the IFoA on the home contents insurance pilot. One of the key challenges identified in the IFoA’s Great Risk Transfer campaign is to find ways to help consumers manage financial risk through good decision making. We believe that expanding product provision and improving processes are fundamental to this decision making and the pilot will enable us to develop and test how improved access to appropriate products for social housing tenants can build resilience and protect what matters to them.”
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