Money Advice Liaison Group (MALG) podcast

'A once in 25 years opportunity’ to revolutionise vulnerable consumer data sharing with Dr Chris FItch

In this first episode of the Money Advice Liaison Group (MALG) podcast, MALG CEO Bob Winnington has the pleasure of sitting down with someone who may be familiar to some listeners, Dr Chris Fitch. He is the Money Advice Trust’s Vulnerability Lead and Research Fellow at the University of Bristol’s Personal Finance Research Centre. As a prolific and highly engaging speaker and host of the ‘Vulnerability Matters’ podcast he’s one of if not the leading voice on fair treatment of vulnerable customers by financial services, utilities, telecoms and related firms in the UK and beyond. A researcher by trade, he delves deep into issues facing vulnerable customers using a ‘lived experience’ approach to come up with practical solutions that work.
His latest passion project is the Government’s ‘Share Once Support Register’ which will mean vulnerable customers only need to register with energy, telecoms and water companies once to access extra help. In this episode, Bob has the opportunity to ask Chris what his secret is when it comes to galvanising people and organisations to get on board with his collaborative projects and how he manages to communicate his messages so well. They discuss the 10 principles for designing consumer data sharing programmes which a group of independent experts have come up with to inform the new Share Once Support Register and we get Chris' take on what the new Government needs to do to ensure that vulnerable customers are finally offered the service they deserve.

“The game is rigged” – why we can only change the system for people in financial difficulty by working together

In this introductory episode of the Money Advice Liaison Group (MALG) podcast, host Helen Gill of Engage Comms is joined by MALG CEO Bob Winnington to discuss what MALG is all about, why we’re bringing you this podcast, what you can expect from it and why, in 2024, we need game-changing solutions to 'improving the lives of people in debt' more than ever.
Former City trader and ‘real world’ economist Gary Stevenson said in one of his recent youtube videos that he thinks “the game is rigged” for low income households in the current economy. We’ll be talking about how MALG Members and others can work collaboratively to overcome the hurdles put in place by the pandemic and the cost of living crisis to building financial resilience for all, as we head into 2025 and beyond.