MorganAsh backs Carers Week blueprint with call for improved support for carers from financial services firms

Support services provider MorganAsh has welcomed Carer UK’s new Building Carer Friendly Communities blueprint as an important step forward towards improving support for millions of unpaid carers, but warns of a missed opportunity to address the role that financial services firms must play in identifying and supporting carers as vulnerable customers.

Launched for Carers Week 2026, the blueprint sets out the guiding principles for building carer-friendly communities and how businesses, services and community groups can better recognise and support those people with caring responsibilities. While valuable, MorganAsh believes that the recommendations are not specific enough about the obligations of financial services firms – particularly under the FCA’s Consumer Duty.

Consumer Duty has placed a renewed emphasis on firms to understand customer circumstances, identify and monitor potential vulnerabilities and ensure customers receive fair value and good outcomes. Alongside clear evidence and reporting requirements, Consumer Duty calls for firms to work collaboratively and share relevant data and information to deliver good outcomes – as recently reinforced in a joint statement by the FCA and the ICO.

MorganAsh believes that there is a missed opportunity within the blueprint to link caring responsibilities and vulnerability in a financial services environment with wider requirements under Consumer Duty.

Data from the MorganAsh Resilience System shows caring responsibilities are consistently among the top five customer vulnerability characteristics recorded by firms, highlighting the scale of the issue and the need for greater support.

Johnny Timpson OBE, an advocate for UK carers, financial inclusion commissioner and chairman of MorganAsh, said: “We strongly support the tremendous work of Carers UK and Carers Week in building more carer friendly communities. We welcome this blueprint and encourage all sectors, services and communities to embrace and adopt these guiding principles. Given the clear financial pressures faced by so many carers – particularly those unpaid – as well as broader vulnerability challenges, there’s a clear opportunity here to bring financial services into the conversation and remind them of their obligations.

“For many, becoming a carer has profound impact on their financial resilience. This is often just the tip of the iceberg, with caring responsibilities often causing significant emotional strain or resulting in poor mental and physical health – among other serious issues. Financial services firms need to be proactive and work together to understand their vulnerable customers’ circumstances and mitigate the difficulties this growing group of people face. Under Consumer Duty, firms are expected to do just that, yet carers can often remain invisible and unsupported.”

MorganAsh calls on firms to clearly recognise caring responsibilities as a significant vulnerability within financial services and Consumer Duty frameworks, while delivering more flexible and accessible support that reflects the realities carers face. This should be underpinned by stronger approaches to capturing, sharing and communicating vulnerability data across organisations, helping ensure that carers receive consistent support, without having to repeatedly explain their circumstances.

Andrew Gething, managing director of MorganAsh, said: “While firms are often quick to look for more visible or obvious vulnerabilities, we also need to consider life events and the likes of caring responsibilities – particularly as they continue to rank so highly in our assessments. Through Consumer Duty, there is a real opportunity to respond to the needs of the UK’s carers and ensure the right recommendations and support are provided across the distribution chain. This is only possible with the right systems and processes, and having robust data. Building carer-friendly communities absolutely requires that financial services firms play an active role. Consumer Duty has created the framework and the expectation for firms to act.”

MorganAsh is a specialist in Consumer Duty and customer vulnerability. The firm launched its award-winning MARS platform to help firms understand and monitor vulnerable customers and deliver good outcomes – as required by Consumer Duty. It is in use across financial services and the utilities sector, enabling businesses to adopt a consistent approach to identifying vulnerable characteristics and generate an objective Resilience Rating – much like a credit score.