Vulnerable Users Statement

What vulnerability can mean

Vulnerability may be temporary, permanent, visible or hidden. It can arise from health, disability, literacy, financial shock, bereavement, homelessness, coercive control, digital exclusion, low confidence or another personal circumstance.

Affordit does not attempt to diagnose vulnerability. The aim is to design the service so users can understand their choices without being shamed, rushed or exposed to avoidable harm.

Recognising different circumstances

Users may experience financial distress, homelessness, coercive control, disability, learning difficulty or another form of vulnerability. Affordit should not assume every user has the same choices, confidence or support.

Product approach

• Avoid shame, pressure and artificial urgency
• Explain uncertainty and limitations
• Keep commercial content separate from a result
• Offer appropriate routes to specialist support
• Allow users to pause, review assumptions and return later
• Avoid presenting an estimate as certainty

Clear and proportionate communication

Important limitations, costs and consequences should be presented in plain language and at the point they matter. Users should not need to understand financial jargon to recognise what a result means.

Errors and high-pressure results should explain what can be reviewed. They should not use alarmist language, artificial scarcity or a tone that blames the user.

Commercial protections

A vulnerable user’s financial inputs must not be used to create manipulative targeting. Commercial relationships cannot change a calculation, score or verdict.

Sponsored or affiliate content must be optional, clearly labelled and separated from the result. Unsuitable products and high-pressure selling are outside Affordit’s product principles.

Specialist help

Where appropriate, support routes may include services such as MoneyHelper, Citizens Advice, StepChange, university hardship support, emergency services or safeguarding services. Affordit does not replace those services.

The most suitable route depends on the concern. Affordit should signpost rather than attempt to provide regulated debt advice, crisis support or safeguarding intervention itself.

Feedback and review

Users can report language, guidance or a journey that creates a barrier or feels harmful. Relevant concerns are routed to product, accessibility, safeguarding or complaints owners and used to improve the service.