PayPlan supports Santander with training

Free debt advice provider PayPlan has spent two weeks upskilling a select group of individuals at Santander on domestic abuse awareness in a financial service setting.

PayPlan says that it trained around 120 Santander employees via Zoom from a broad range of departments including those who work in Collections and Recoveries, Customer Facing teams, HR and Specialist Support.

Since 2018, the company has been focussing on the close relationship between debt and domestic abuse. The organisation first started working with domestic abuse charity Broxtowe Women’s Project.

The National Domestic Abuse helpline, which is run by Refuge, reported a 25% increase in calls and online requests for help since the lockdown. With this added pressure, there has arguably never been a more important time to raise awareness of the subject among members of staff at all levels across businesses.

PayPlan’s Vulnerable Client Expert and trainer, Emma Gibbons, said: “As the FCA’s expectations around vulnerability evolve, and with lock-down changing how we communicate with clients, it’s arguably now more important than ever to learn the most up to date legislation and practical conversation models to support all vulnerable clients. This includes creating a safe space and support system for people to disclose domestic and economic abuse.”

Antony Price, Training and Partnership Manager at PayPlan, said: “In 2019, at PayPlan, we saw domestic abuse disclosures rise by 42%, and we’ve seen more than half that number of cases already in 2020. This is evident of the impact that domestic abuse training has when delivered to customer facing colleagues. We look forward to continuing this work with Santander and seeing the impact that this training has had.

Jayne Ireton, Supplier Manager at Santander, said: “The webinar was really insightful and informative.  Understanding how men and women are affected by domestic and financial abuse and the scale of the issue was an eye opener. There are many ways people can experience abuse and the session highlighted the importance of understanding customers’ specific needs to be able to explore the best way to support.”