As we head into the summer, some parts of our lives are beginning to look more like they did before the global Covid-19 pandemic but in many other ways, we are just starting to get to grips with the bigger picture including the question of the long-term financial effects.

Consumers have had a number of options made available to them in the wake of the rapid spread of Coronavirus, and I think there are two key factors that are going to have very long-term Financial impacts. First, payment holidays. Over one million people have taken up payment holidays on mortgages, loans, credit cards, and other products. In many cases, this will have given then 3 months off from their regular repayments, with the understanding that they will still have to pay the total amount borrowed in full, with those three months now being added on to the original end date. In June the FCA announced that payment holidays could be extended an additional three months.

Another key factor in the long-term Financial effects of the pandemic is the government furlough programme. This allowed employers who knew their business would dry up during a pandemic to have their employees stay home, stop working and have 80% of their normal salary paid to them by the government. That scheme is set to end in October, but from August employers will have to recommence paying furloughed workers National Insurance and pension contributions. In September they will also have to directly pay 10% of furloughed workers pay, rising to 20% for the final month of the scheme. From July, employers are also able to return furloughed workers to work part-time, but if they choose to do so they have to pay 100% of those worker’s wages.

As the furlough scheme comes to a close and gets progressively more expensive for employers, there are going to be some very difficult choices to be made by companies who have been hit hard by the dramatic downturn in spending or those businesses who have been rendered fundamentally unable to operate by the conditions of lockdown. Businesses may decide to let people go, finding they can’t afford to bring them back or to have to pay their full wage while they are still unable to work, creating one of the biggest indirect long-term effects.

This raises some big questions about the state of play for workers who have already taken payment holidays. Many people are about to be in a worse financial situation than they were in the first two months of the pandemic when they were quick to take up the tools available. They can hope that the government decides to extend schemes further but it seems very unlikely that we’ll see furloughs and payment holidays given more than a few months extensions, if any. For people who have already taken up these offers and are now left with reduced to limited income, they face a very difficult road ahead in terms of paying off their lending. By the end of the year, I expect we could well see this having a knock-on effect in the Consumer Finance industry as organisations struggle to collect and recover money owed to them by people who simply don’t have it.

The Financial Conduct Authority is currently in the process of a consultation on the treatment of vulnerable customers, so we know this is a key area of interest for the regulatory body. The FCA guidance around Coronavirus includes a discussion of the pandemic making already vulnerable customers situations more difficult, as well as putting some people who would not previously be classed as vulnerable customers in newly vulnerable positions due to “sudden and significant loss of income”. Organisations need to be prepared for the long-term impact here: increased activity involving both recovering funds and receiving complaints from vulnerable customers, and I would recommend any Financial Services business to be mindful of who they have handling that work. At a time when many businesses will have reduced headcount, there will be staff being asked to pick up complaints or collections work who do not have specialised training in working with vulnerable customers and who will potentially be facing large volumes of complaints.

Staff who are dealing with high-pressure work with a high volume of cases, and may be working remotely with less support than they would normally receive, may need extra support and time off to deal with the stressful situation in a healthy manner and employers should be mindful of this. With the Financial Services sector being affected by the pandemic in a high-profile way, I think we may see some employees looking for work in other sectors, or, having had their first experience of working from home, seeking long-term home-based work if the bank or Financial Services business they work for is unable to offer that. On top of all of those factors, employers need to think about members of staff who are unable to return to work on the same timetable as the rest of their teams due to shielding high-risk family members or having to care for children full time who would normally be going to schools or nurseries.

So how can the Financial Services sector prepare to handle these intersecting issues of low headcount and high-pressure requirements? I think organisations need to think about ramping up their Collections and Debt Recovery capacity and investing in highly experienced Complaints specialists who are ready for the rising tide and who are adept in working with vulnerable customers.  Whether it’s a whole new contract team on-site or an outsourced specialist to relieve your own team of the most high-risk calls, Kind Consultancy can help your Financial Services organisation be ready and fully prepared to handle the long-term impacts of the pandemic in the second half of 2020. For a confidential discussion around your business’s needs, contact me on 01216432100 or e-mail selena@kindconsultancy.com

Selena Tye

From the 18th to the 24th of May, it’s the UK Mental Health Foundation’s Mental Health Awareness Week, and we at Kind wanted to take this opportunity to highlight the work that our Charity of the Year for 2020, YESS is doing at the moment.

Your Emotional Support Service (YESS) are a Mental Health and Well-being charity based in Uttoxeter Staffordshire and operating throughout the Midlands. During the Covid-19 Pandemic, they’re providing support via telephone and video conference at a time when many people are more in need than ever of assistance with the emotional and psychological challenges.

Kind’s Selena Tye will be running the Manchester Marathon to raise money for YESS, and you’ll hear more from us on that as closer to the time – the marathon is currently pushed back to October. For now, if you want to directly support the vital work YESS is doing, please consider donating here.

To find out more about Mental Health Awareness Week and this year’s theme of kindness, visit the Mental Health Foundation.

Earlier this month the Financial Conduct Authority published their 2020/2021 business plan. With everything going on in the world at the moment, it can be hard to keep up with Finance and Banking news – here are a few of the key inclusions that you need to know about right now.

First and foremost, the FCA’s immediate primary concern is protecting consumers, organisations and the markets from the wide-reaching economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Last week saw some of these measures swiftly coming into effect, with the FCA requiring financial services to offer help to people whose financial situation has been impacted in several ways, including loan freezes and the provision of interest-free support. Since Friday, the FCA has announced a proposed package of measures to support Motor Finance and High Cost Credit Agreement customers facing difficulty, including potential payment freezes, pending input from industry this afternoon.

The regulator has also committed to combating scams, with some fraudsters using the pandemic as an opportunity to launch new types of scams and to pray on consumer’s fears about the safety of their money during the current upheaval. Some scams already seen involve persuading people to “invest” money that the criminals say will be used to produce hand sanitiser and medicine or people being contacted and told that because of the virus their current account is no longer financially safe, encouraging them to transfer the money to the fraudsters.

Other Coronavirus related concerns include a commitment to ensuring customers of smaller firms get strong and clear support such as guidance on how to make use of the Government’s Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, and FCA fees being frozen for smaller organisations until the end of the year to help them focus on making sure they can focus on supporting their customers during this difficult time.

Looking further ahead, the business plan’s key priorities relating to consumer protection include commitments to ensuring payment systems are safe and reliable and doing more to prevent people from falling into unaffordable debt and investigating whether vulnerable customers are being offered inappropriate products. They also want to examine whether products, including those of relatively new digital and fintech services, are offering “good value”.

The FCA will continue to focus on financial crime, particularly on ensuring the systems, especially those relating to fraud, are robust and functioning efficiently. The regulator will look to increase and improve the use of data to identify organisations or sectors vulnerable to financial crime while continuing work to raise consumer awareness around scams.

In the insurance space, there’s a focus on the harm being caused by unfair pricing and remuneration practices that reduce value for customers. The FCA will work on making sure that information given to customers is clear and not misleading, especially where it relates to customers looking to switch or renew, as well as plans to examine if vulnerable customers are being wrongly excluded from some products. In line with other areas, there’s also a concentration on whether products are providing good value.

One area singled out for scrutiny in the plan is the pensions market, where they say the investment distribution process and support network around it is not working effectively. To tackle this, the FCA is setting targets set to improve retirement advice not just through more appropriate investment products, but also to try to get consumers to make more effective decisions and to make sure firms are operating to high regulatory standards and always acting in their customer’s interest. They’re also looking at culture issues especially within solo regulated firms, ensuring they’re complying with the same SM&CR (Senior Managers & Certification Regime) requirements as larger organisations, as well as a commitment to continue focussing on the 4 key culture drivers in businesses (purpose, leadership, approach to reward and managing people, and governance) and assessing their effectiveness in reducing the potential for harm to customers.

And finally, at a “big picture” level, the FCA is looking to re-assess and transform their own systems including what data they collect, how it’s analysed, managed and shared, and the processes being used to decide which firms and individuals to authorise. Part of this will include a complete replacement for the current Gabriel system, which has up til now been the primary method of firms reporting complaints data to the regulator. They’re also looking to revamp the methods used to supervise firms and how unacceptable firms are stopped and removed from the sector.

However, due to the unprecedented nature of the current pandemic and the breadth of the economic and financial consequences, the FCA says that they will probably not be able to begin work on any of their long term goals for at least three months and that they may publish a revised business plan once the virus is under control.

If you have any concerns about how the new FCA business plan will affect you and your organisation, get in touch with Kind Consultancy today for a confidential conversation about how we can support your firm through a suite of services delivered by top-tier interim Governance, Risk & Compliance talent, including complaints support, process transformation, remediation and rectification projects and SM&CR training.

Following the government’s advice that everyone work from home if possible, many of us are having our first experience of doing so for an extended period of time. It can be easy to get demotivated and develop bad working habits on your own in the home, so we’ve got five tips for staying on top during the coming weeks and months.

1. Get dressed

It may seem like a good excuse to stay in your pyjamas all day, but getting dressed as if you were going to leave the house will help to gear up your brain for work and can help build a sense of normality as you maintain some of your regular routines. You should also consider how you’ll appear if you’re on video calls with clients during your time working from home.

2. Establish a workspace

Find a spot in the home where you can sit comfortably and that has good lighting and make that your dedicated workspace for your time working from home. It may be tempting to just sink into the sofa with your laptop, but delineating where you work in the house from where you relax will help to keep you motivated and ensure you still have good work/life boundaries. Again, going to your workspace at your usual starting time and leaving it at your usual finishing time will help to maintain a routine as well, keeping you in a good working mindstate.

3. Music? News? Silence?

When working from home we have more control over our environment than in a shared office, and you should find what works for you to pass the day. Some people find having rolling news on makes them more stressed and worried, but others feel it gives them a vital connection to the outside world. Some of us will find that actually working in silence helps us focus – while others will find themselves zoning out unless they put music on. Try all your options and see what works best for you and your approach to work.

4. Walks and Breaks.

A blast of fresh air does the brain a world of good and, weather and health permitting, we strongly recommend taking some time outdoors whenever you can while you’re working remotely. Under current government guidance at the time of publishing, unless you’re self-isolating it’s still absolutely ok and even encouraged to go outside for exercise and health – you just need to make sure you do it alone and maintain your distance from other people who are out and about. Maybe try a short walk during the time you would normally have your lunch break and a longer one after work. It’s also important to take breaks throughout the day. Some people when working from home feel a pressure to be ultra-productive and always in front of their laptop, but in the same way that at the office you would normally leave your desk every now and then to make coffee, it’s good to break up the day with short periods of time away from the keyboard when you work from home.

5. Stay in touch with your team

It’s easy to feel cut off when working from home, and it’s important to stay in contact with the rest of your time. In addition to a morning meeting with your team, it can be helpful to compensate for not being in the same room by confirming when you’ve completed tasks or received messages – the sort of thing you’d normally just say out loud across the desk can become a quick e-mail that helps everyone feel connected throughout the day.

It’s a big adjustment for a lot of us, but with the right attitude and approach, we can all make a great success of our time working from home.

Are you a current jobseeker who is unsure about their first ever video interview? We’ve got some handy tips on that too.

Each year, Kind chooses one charity to support throughout that year with multiple fundraising projects. This year, it’s YESS: Youth Emotional Support Services.

Based in Uttoxeter, YESS is an organisation that works with children and young people across East Staffordshire and the Cannock area, providing much needed mental health support, and reducing the stigma around mental illness. Since 2011 they’ve worked in collaboration with the NHS, building a team of counsellors, youth participation workers and wellbeing practitioners who delivering emotional support for young people experiencing distress and creating opportunities for those who want to take part in transforming the mental health arena in their region.

Therapy services YESS offer include Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Counselling and Art Therapy. They also provide training to adults who work with children, preparing them to identify symptoms and appropriately refer young people experiencing anxiety, depression, anger, low self-esteem, conduct disorders, and more. The Wellbeing Practitioners work within schools, providing low-intensity, evidence-based treatments for children experiencing mild to moderate mental health needs such as panic attacks, anxiety and persistent low-moods.

Mental health has been a focus for Kind in the past, for both awareness-raising and fundraising, and the opportunity to support a project working close to our home base in the West Midlands is really important to us, as we’re big believers in giving back to the community around the company.

Our first activity of the year is coming up on April 5th when Kind Consultancy’s Selena Tye will be running the Manchester Marathon to raise money for YESS. Find out more about and donate here at our JustGiving page and keep an eye on Kind Consultancy’s social media pages for updates on Selena’s training and preparations.