£4 million stolen!
I was horrified to read the story of a care home owner who was recently jailed for taking more than £4 million dishonestly from his victims. These victims were elderly residents at the Barton Park Nursing Home in Southport and the fraud took place over a prolonged period of time.…
Sharing is Caring
Within the collections industry in recent years, two of the most frequently used words have been vulnerability and transparency. The former due to the fact that, not that there are more vulnerable customers, but that we are being more pro-active in identifying them and handling them as customer centric businesses…
Have you noticed an increased number of online gambling adverts during the World Cup?
Over the past few weeks it’s been amazing to watch TV and to see so many opportunities for people to bet online or by text. Enticing ads seem to imply it’s good to gamble, some ads even going as far as to make you think that it’s cool to be…
The VRS fully supports the work undertaken by the Insolvency Service in identifying companies that scammed vulnerable consumers
Their announcement last week explained the full extent of this practice as follows: Since 2016, the Insolvency Service has wound up nine health supplement companies in the public interest after they scammed people, often the elderly and vulnerable, into unnecessarily buying their products. The Insolvency Service estimates that there have…
The VRS looks at the manifestos of the major political parties all of which make commitments to improving mental health services and support.
Each of the principal political parties that have so far published their manifest has devoted time and thought to the highly sensitive public policy issues of consumer over-indebtedness and mental health. Mental health is finally getting the political attention it has lacked for decades. The broad range of commitments and…
It’s been all go at the Vulnerability Registration Service
Since our “open doors” launch on the 1 st March 2017 the VRS is pleased to announce that Consumers are self-registering. We are also delighted to announce the continued interest and sign up of new firms from across all sectors that wish to use and subscribe consenting consumers to the…
Can automated processing work with non-standard consumers
There is no doubt automated services are increasingly being offered online across all business sectors and are becoming more remote. This can make it extremely difficult for firms to identify a non-standard consumer’s situation or circumstance. In many cases automation processes, will not identify a consumer’s vulnerability and real life…
How to handle Vulnerability issues sensitively and professionally
"VRS", enabling an individual's vulnerability issues to be handled sensitively and professionally. The Vulnerability Registration Service ('VRS') has been developed to help vulnerable consumers protect themselves against the financial, social and very personal hardship suffered as a result of debt and financial problems. The VRS is independent of any other…
The Vulnerability Registration Service opens its doors
The Vulnerability Registration Service (‘VRS’), the UK’s first central register for helping vulnerable consumers protect themselves against further debt or financial stress, opens its doors on 1 March through its dedicated consumer portal. All organisations have a social, moral and regulatory responsibility to identify vulnerable consumers. And many have invested…
Financial Abuse
It often starts innocently enough, your partner asks to see a receipt for your recent clothes shop, or apologise that he or she opened your bank or credit card statement by mistake. It is not always easy for the abused to recognise when financial abuse is taking place, in the…
