Mind the disability investing gap

Some groups will be disproportionately impacted by the real-terms drop in income, higher mortgage costs and unemployment, notably those with the most complicated life circumstances.

Disabled people in the UK make up 21% of the working population and over 40% of pension age.

Changing demographics, longer lives but increasing chronic conditions mean this number will rise.

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Having the right exposure to the savings and investing market can transform financial fortunes and provide much-needed security, but this safety net is not equally available to everyone.

And disabled people often face several complex and intersecting challenges and constraints that limit their ability to participate in and benefit from traditional savings and investment activity.

City Hive has long argued for the democratisation of investing to create a more inclusive investing industry and an equitable and sustainable society.

To highlight how the industry can better support disabled people, we have recently launched Financial Inclusion and Disability: Rebuilding Trust in Financial Services.

We surveyed 1,000 adults from across the UK, 506 of whom were disabled, to understand their financial situations, their perceptions of the future, their experiences and the solutions that could support improved access to saving and investing.

The report centres the voice of disabled people to understand what actions the asset management industry can take to attract and enable sustained participation from disabled people in a position to save, by understanding more about their needs and motivations.

The findings showed that yet again, the investment industry is missing the opportunity to create sustainable wealth from a group that feels excluded.

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Around 43% of the disabled people surveyed said they can afford to save some money every month, and 47% said they have some money set aside for a rainy day.

And although six in ten noted that they think investing can give them a more secure future, they were also almost twice as likely to say “Investing is not for people like me.”

In short, many disabled people are facing barriers to participation in the traditional investing and savings industry.  

From having accessibility and inclusion at the heart of product and service design, creating clearer pathways that cater for complex life circumstance and considering how to tailor advice, the requests from disabled people are clear.

They can also be mitigated by the investment industry if we are willing to take decisive action – and there is a regulatory premise for taking action now with the FCA’s new Consumer Duty requirements.

These put greater responsibility on financial services providers to ensure accessibility and applicability of products and services, placing customer outcomes at the heart of their activity.

Now is the time for firms to look at their full offering to be more inclusive – which will benefit everyone in the long run.

As we all prepare to feel the full force of the coming recession, our best chance of weathering the storm is to ensure that as many people as possible are able to secure their financial futures, having sufficient savings and exposure to investing to support the challenges of their financial journey.

Bev Shah is founder and CEO of City Hive