MorganAsh has embedded the Inbest benefits calculator within the MorganAsh Resilience System (MARS), to simplify the process of checking whether benefits are available to a customer.
MARS assesses, measures, and helps manage vulnerability, including next steps in line with the individual’s characteristics and circumstances.
The integrated benefits calculator was also recently expanded to provide the ability to check for the broadest range of benefits, social tariffs and local discretionary grants available to customers.
This feature also allows Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulated firms to ensure that they comply with the Consumer Duty.
The was introduced following a report from Policy in Practice, which showed that UK households were missing out on £19bn of support each year; the leading hurdles included administrative complexity, a lack of awareness, stigma and increasing fragmentation of support.
Andrew Gething (pictured), managing director of MorganAsh, said: “In the latest release of MARS, we have added over 60 treatments for all sorts of vulnerabilities – and this resource is road-mapped to grow.
“We believe that expecting advisers and agents to remember all ‘next steps’, and when they should be invoked, is a mammoth task.
“By using technology to dynamically match treatments to consumers’ need removes the need to provide training for staff on all of these treatments. When the need arises, the user is simply prompted with the suggested treatment in real time.”
He added: “We will continue to work with Inbest, and our customers, to streamline how this works – and maximise the uptake of otherwise lost benefits for consumers.”
Manuel Peleteiro, from Inbest, added: “We believe that integrating benefits checks into current customer journeys is the most effective way to help households find out and manage any benefits to which they are eligible.
“Our collaboration with MorganAsh is as a perfect example of this working in practice. By integrating our benefits calculator into MARS – and providing personalised, proactive prompts – we ensure that not only are vulnerable customers aware of any potential benefits, it also becomes easier for them to view and manage those benefits.”
