PREVENTATIVE ARREARS
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Senior Portfolio Manager (Customer Assistance)
Jeff McAdam on UKAR's pro-active approach.
We already do lots of work to engage people who are
“ nless someone is
U
in arrears it can be
hard to see how
they are doing.”
start a conversation about their finances — and about what
experiencing budgeting problems or facing arrears but this
their future might hold — and to ensure they were aware we
campaign tries to speak to people before they reach that
can help in a variety of ways.
point. We contact customers who are completely up to date
with their mortgage payments but who we feel might be at
risk in the future.
From our point of view it has also been really useful to get a
more detailed view of how borrowers are managing their
finances. Unless someone is in arrears it can be hard to see
Now completed, learnings from the project will be used to
inform UKAR’s ongoing debt prevention strategies.
Since launching in October 2014, the Preventative Arrears pilot
has been helping thousands of mortgage holders review and
forward plan their finances and to be more aware of the
solutions and products available to them.
Jeff hopes to use the learnings to offer even more tailored
support in the year ahead. He says: “Giving customers the
right kind of help, delivered in the right way and at the right
time can make a big difference to their overall financial health.
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UKAR ARENA SPRING 2015
each month? Are they borrowing elsewhere to maintain their
cash flow? How sustainable is their budgeting? Do they have
‘soft triggers’ to identify those who might be vulnerable to
UKAR is committed to finding new and pro-active approaches
to improving customers’ overall financial stability. Earlier
this year, Senior Portfolio Manager (Debt Management)
Jeff McAdam shared his thoughts on an innovative new
Preventative Arrears pilot scheme.
how they are doing. Are they struggling to make payments
overall borrowing — taking a snapshot of their credit
commitments including their mortgage — and use a series of
Jeff McAdam,
Senior Portfolio Manager, UKAR.
It is new but important territory for us. We look at customers’
savings or have plans in place for interest rate rises?
financial pressures in the future.
We’ve been able to discuss some of these issues and where
So, for example, we consider issues such as access to revolving
relevant, refer people to other teams, including our broker
credit. Are people spending up to the limit on credit cards? Do
partners, and also to external partners like StepChange Debt
they have any ‘wiggle room’ if their circumstances changed?
Charity to review their unsecured lending.
We are aware that these phone calls have to be handled
sensitively — we don’t want to alienate people or worry them
by calling — so we use a team of experienced call agents to
Next month we’ll be extending the campaign, using ‘hard
triggers’ such as previous missed payments, to make contact
with even more customers and offer them the same level of
ensure the conversations are positive for our customers.
expert support.
The pilot launched in October and since then we have spoken
It is difficult to measure the success of a campaign like this
to approximately 1,800 UKAR mortgage holders.
because it’s much more about creating engagement and
awareness than any immediate tangible outcome. But we
We know that many customers might not want or need
hope that our actions will help improve the financial situation
advice at this stage but we felt it would be a good way to
for our customers going forward.”
SPRING 2015 UKAR ARENA
13