Vulnerable customers
We believe everyone deserves to feel secure about their financial future, especially those facing challenges.
Supporting vulnerable customers together
With nearly half of UK adults facing vulnerability, it’s essential that we’re here to support our customers when they need us most. We want to help you create a workplace where everyone can thrive. That is why we work with you to support your vulnerable employees.
What do we mean by a vulnerable customer?
Vulnerability can affect us all at different times in our lives, whether due to financial challenges, health issues, or major life changes. It's important to remember that anyone on your team might be facing these struggles right now.
Here at Smart Pension, we use the four drivers of vulnerability to make sure we support you and your employees.
Health
Conditions or illnesses that affect the ability to carry out day-to-day life, from hearing impairments to mental health conditions.
Life events
Life events such as bereavement, job loss, or relationship breakdown.
Resilience
Over 20 carefully approved funds to suit risk, performance, or personal beliefs and lifestyle preferences.
Capability
Lack of knowledge about financial matters or low confidence in managing money. Low capability in other relevant areas, such as literacy and digital skills.
How we support your vulnerable employees
We’re here to help you support your employees during challenging times. We make it easier for you to care for your vulnerable employees with practical solutions and expert guidance.
Accessible and inclusive support
We offer straightforward, jargon-free communication to simplify pensions, along with user-friendly online tools, resources, and accessibility features in our app and portal, ensuring everyone is included.
Support individual needs
We recognise that one size doesn’t fit all, which is why we work with your employees to provide personalised support for their individual circumstances.
Digital first, not digital only
We make pensions simple with our app and online tools. And when personal help is needed, our customer service teams are available.
Understanding every call
We believe everyone deserves to feel secure about their financial future, especially if they’re facing challenges. Our customer service team is trained to recognise when a member needs extra care, because every call matters.
What our savers say
Support when it was needed most
At the time, the member had lost temporary accommodation and was living in his car. Beth worked with our team to waive the normal claim limit so he could access his savings sooner.
"Beth was a lifesaver. She took the time to understand my situation and made sure I felt supported throughout the process. With her help, I was able to access my pension money quickly, and she even told me about extra support I could get. I’m so grateful."
Smart Pension saver at retirement age
Making access possible
When compliance checks flagged the member’s bank details, Beth reviewed his records and worked with our team to get approval. This meant he could access his money without delay.
"Beth went above and beyond. She kept me updated, explained everything clearly, and made sure I didn’t feel left on my own. Thanks to her, I was able to keep going during a really tough time."
Smart Pension saver at retirement age
Understanding every individual
When a member with dyslexia, dyspraxia, and ADHD contacted us, Ingemar took the time to listen, adapt his approach, and make sure every part of the conversation was clear.
"Absolute amazing fellow. They were really respectful of my dyslexia and my dyspraxia and my ADHD, very polite, so happy to be using these guys, thank you, I appreciate you."
Smart Pension saver at retirement age
FAQs
We provide useful tools including emails, videos and other free resources for you to download and share with your employees. These will help your them get the most out of their Smart Pension account and get on track with their saving for retirement. We even include handy campaigns that you can send to your employees using email templates and wordings. Access our employer help centre now.
Market ups and downs can feel unsettling, especially when headlines focus on volatility or falling values. But pensions are designed for the long term. Like any investment, a pension may be affected by short-term market changes. However, history shows that over the medium to long term, markets generally recover and grow. Read more about what market volatility means for pension savings here.
Protecting your pension is important, especially as scams are becoming more sophisticated. Never share your account details or personal information with someone you don’t know or trust, and be cautious if you're offered early access to your pension or high-return investments – these are often scams.
Smart Pension has measures in place to help keep your account secure, but staying informed is key. For tips on spotting scams and keeping your money safe, visit our How to be scam smart page.
If you let us know about any additional needs or vulnerabilities, we can record this on your account, with your permission, so we can adjust how we support you in future calls. You can contact us by phone or email to let us know how we can make things easier for you.
Yes. We know that not everyone feels comfortable speaking English, so we’re here to help. Our teams speak a wide range of languages from across the world.
If you’d like to speak to someone in another language, please let us know when you call or contact us. We’ll do our best to connect you with a team member who speaks your preferred language.
