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A fond welcome to the 15th episode of The Pension Confident Podcast. This time, we're discussing how financial institutions can be more inclusive of those who might be more vulnerable when it comes to their finances.

'Levelling up' seems to be the buzz phrase of the moment. But what does that actually mean in practice? You may have fallen behind financially due to where you live, or maybe the system or service you're using just simply isn't designed for someone with your set of circumstances. That could be your ethnicity, religion, gender, age or something else entirely.

Helping us to 'level up' and discuss how we achieve financial inclusion are:

• CEO of Bloom Money; Nina Mohanty
• Head of Communications at the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS); Emma Barrow
• PensionBee's CDO; Matt Loft.

Episode Breakdown:

01:53 When we've felt excluded

04:42 Who's likely to be financially excluded?

06:37 Those who choose not to use financial services

08:37 Accessibility to technology and in-person banking

14:29 Low credit scores

20:08 Low income and insurance

22:01 What the government and industry should do to help

*We thought it would be helpful to highlight our sources for some of the key stats we mentioned in this episode:

• We say there are about 3 million Muslims living in the UK. According to the latest census, the actual number is 3.87 million.
• We say there are around 11,000 Post Offices in the UK. The precise number is 11,635.
• We talk about plans for 28 new 'shared banking hubs'. There are actually plans to open 38 more of these.
• We were 1% off on the difference between the average amount in men's and women's pension pots. Our data shows that men have 39% more in their pots, on average, than women.

Further reading:

Need a little extra help to level up? Then check out these articles from PensionBee.

• Episode 15 transcript
• The importance of financial inclusion
• How PensionBee's supporting vulnerable customers
• What is pension poverty?
• Under-pensioned: finding disability support
• Recovering mental health and recovering finances
• How can I make my money Shariah-compliant?
• How can we improve financial health amongst women?
• How are pensions affected by wealth inequality?

Other useful resources:

• Responsibility in design: designing products for accessibility, disability and neurodiversity (YouTube)
• How to check your credit report (Money Helper)
• FSCS
• Bloom Money
• OneBanx
• Plain English Campaign
• Plain Numbers
• Progress Together
• Levelling Up the United Kingdom (Government white paper)

Come and see us live!

On Thursday 4 May we'll be recording our first ever episode in front of a live studio audience and we'd love for you to join us. We'll be at White City Place in London from 6:30pm to discuss whether your money's better off in a pension or an ISA. You'll also have the chance to get your questions answered by our expert panel:

• Founder of Money To The Masses; Damien Fahy
• Consumer Editor of the Financial Times and presenter of the Money Clinic Podcast; Claer Barrett
• Financial Expert and Host of The Conversation of Money Podcast; Peter Komolafe
• Director (VP) Public Affairs at PensionBee; Becky O'Connor.

Tickets are absolutely free, so if you'd like to attend - just click here.

Catch up on the latest news, read our transcripts or watch on YouTube:

• The Pension Confident Podcast
• The Pension Confident Podcast on YouTube

Follow @PensionBee on X, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Threads and LinkedIn.

Follow Nina @BloomMoney on Instagram, TikTok LinkedIn and Facebook and @FSCS on Facebook, X, Instagram and LinkedIn.