Policy article

What did Which? Fund?

Learn more about how our first set of grant holders got on with their projects, and who we offered funding to in 22/23
3 min read
Which? Fund team
Which? Fund agreement

2022/23 has been an exciting year for consumer protections, with several big pieces of legislation moving forwards which should help make life simpler, fairer and safer for consumers - including measures to make sure consumers are refunded when they fall victim to a scam, to outlaw fake reviews, and to protect consumers from scam adverts online. But there’s always more to do - particularly for diverse and disadvantaged communities who can be more affected by or face different types of consumer harm. The Which? Fund complements our own policy and insight work seeking to tackle problems at source for consumers.

 Our 2022/23 grants

We opened a call for applications to the Which? Fund in July 2022, and are delighted, as we open our new call for applications, to be able to share the organisations who successfully secured Which? Fund grants in 2022/23, in alphabetical order: 

  • The Bevan Foundation, exploring the risks and opportunities of Open Banking money management apps for people on low incomes. 
  • London South Bank University, looking at how accessible online shopping is to people with learning (intellectual) disabilities. 
  • Samaritans, looking at retail protections which could reduce access to means of suicide.

We’re so excited for these projects to get underway. Each one clearly fulfils our aim of exploring and tackling consumer harms facing diverse and disadvantaged communities, whether that’s people living on low incomes, with specific disabilities, or experiencing suicidal thoughts. We’re looking forward to seeing how these projects drive systemic change for consumers in the years ahead.

What about our earlier grants?

The first set of Which? Fund grants, made in 2021/22, are now drawing to a close. Here’s a quick update on what the grants completed so far have achieved: 

The Money and Mental Health Policy Institute’s project identified a range of issues people with mental health problems face when buying insurance, including excessively high costs, lack of access, and challenges with exclusions and making claims. The launch received extensive coverage both in the sector press (FT Adviser, Cover Magazine, Insurance Post) and national media including BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours. The report makes a series of recommendations to the FCA, insurance industry and the government, and Money and Mental Health will continue conversations with these organisations to work towards their implementation.

The Pensions Policy Institute project identified key gaps in existing national surveys (for example, the Wealth and Assets Survey, Family Resources Survey and Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings) which undermine our ability to understand the drives of the pension gap experienced by diverse ethnic communities, and developed a list of questions which should be added to these studies and considered ways in which their samples could be changed to improve the information available to inform policymaking.

The Social Market Foundation’s project set out extensive evidence about different use of financial services products between white and minority ethnic groups, finding a persistent difference in uptake of pensions savings and insurance products even after controlling for income and age (which explain most of the variation in uptake of other products). This was complemented by qualitative research, which identified the drivers of these gaps were largely about the perceived value of these products. The study recommended a series of policy steps to reduce this gap, and received substantial press coverage on BBC online and in the Independent. Most notably, one of the study’s policy recommendations, that the threshold for auto-enrolment into pensions should be reduced to the first pound earned, has recently become government policy after the government backed a Private Members bill on the subject just a month after the report launch.

National Energy Action’s project exploring the energy advice and support needs for Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Communities has become even more important through the energy cost crisis, and is set to finish in the next few months. We look forward to sharing the findings soon.

We are very pleased with the robust and nuanced evidence of harm our grantees have uncovered so far. Policy change can take a long time, but it’s great to see this work already contributing to important conversations. 

Could we fund you?

 Do you work for a UK-registered charity, not-for-profit Community Interest Company or university, and have an idea for work to tackle consumer harm facing diverse and disadvantaged communities? If so, we’d love to hear about it. Please check out our Guidance for Applicants for more details.