Policy article

An update on the Which? Fund

2 min read
Which? Fund team

A fresh approach to tackling consumer harm

Life isn’t fair - and consumer markets are no exception. Some groups of people, including people living with disabilities or health conditions, low income households and members of diverse ethnic communities, can be more exposed to consumer harm, or affected by different types of harm. As the UK’s consumer champion, Which? exists to tackle these harms, and make life simpler, fairer and safer for all consumers. With the rising cost of living biting harder for disadvantaged groups, this has never been more important. 

The first step to tackling harm is really understanding what’s going on. Despite our dedicated in-house research teams, we know that sometimes we won’t be the best placed to investigate the harm diverse and disadvantaged communities are experiencing, or to identify potential solutions. So to make sure that the voices of these communities are heard, and that action is taken to address the challenges they face, we are experimenting with a new way of working. 

This year, through our new initiative the Which? Fund, we are offering grants to UK charities and universities with exempt charitable status for research projects using innovative methodologies to build evidence of the harm experienced by diverse and disadvantaged consumer groups, and to develop evidence-based solutions.

What happened next?

We opened a call for applications to the Fund in September 2021, and have spent the last seven months whittling the 18 initial applications we received down to four projects which we are very excited to be funding. Our first Which? Fund grant recipients are, in alphabetical order: 

  • The Money and Mental Health Policy Institute, to explore and tackle unfair discrimination against people with mental health problems in key insurance markets.
  • National Energy Action, with a project strengthening energy advice and support networks for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities.
  • The Pensions Policy Institute, to assess and address the pensions policy impact of inadequate ethnic minority coverage in national data sets.
  • The Social Market Foundation, exploring whether there is a gap in the take up of financial products among consumers from an ethnic minority background, why this might be and what would help.

Our assessment panel was very impressed by these proposals, each of which firmly fulfils our intention to generate rigorous new insights into the consumer harm experienced by diverse and disadvantaged communities, wherever possible working directly with the people affected. We’re really excited for these projects to get underway, and looking forward to seeing the impact of our funding in the months and years ahead.