I am preparing a grant proposal and I am short of specific background information.
One section of the grant proposal relates to the hypothesis that the
vulnerable members of society (particularly the elderly and infirm)
are not able to deal with all the paperwork that comes their way and
so don?t optimise their financial affairs. Allied to this is the
hypothesis that in the modern world, when billers, such as utility
companies, make errors, it is very difficult for the vulnerable
members of society to resolve them, because they struggle to identify
the problems, manage the idiosyncracies of call centres, communicate
the problem in the language of someone a couple of generations younger
and have the energy to chase unresolved issues.
I have listed some data below that I would be grateful if you could research.
Additional funds are available for relevant supporting information and
any other excellent ideas you may have!
1. Bank accounts
a) % UK population with/without a bank account
b) Demographic split of 1a, especially pensioners
c) Amount average customer pays in bank charges per annum.
d) Demographic split of 1c, especially for pensioners.
e) Any information identifying the demographics of those who pay the
most bank charges
2. Overdraft fees
a) Amount average customer pays in overdraft fees per annum
b) Demographic split of 2a, especially for pensioners
c) Any info about those who pay a lot of overdraft fees
3. Financial errors
a) Proportion of bills that contain errors.
b) Amount of effort involved in resolving those errors (for example,
which I made up, ?to resolve a typical error in a telephone bill takes
27 minutes and involves speaking to 4 people?)
c) Any statistics about success rates in resolving those errors (for
example, again made up, ?despite their best efforts, electricity
customers were only able to resolve 72% of billing errors?).
d) Any data about particular problems faced by the elderly and infirm
resolving those errors.

Thank you.

<UK pensioner ? bank charges, overdrafts and billing errors.

1. Bank accounts.
a. Percentage of the UK without a bank account ? 12-15%, 17%
According to the National Consumer Council, twelve to 15 percent of
households do not have a bank account.
http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:7FV9_b48umgJ:www.ncc.org.uk/about/consumer_futures.pdf+uk+%22not+have+a+bank+account%22++%22national+consumer+%22&hl=en

According to the Financial Service Authority (FSA) 17% of people in
the UK do not have access to current accounts.
(Source: BT charges ?will hit needy?. BBC News.)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/working_lunch/1602545.stm

b.Percentage of pensioners without a bank account ? 9%.
According to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions 91% of
pensioners have a bank or building society account which is suitable
to receive direct payments.
(Source: The United Kingdom Parliament.)
http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm200304/cmhansrd/cm041013/text/41013w07.htm

c. Average amount a customer pays in banking charges per annum - £38.77
In the UK the average bank charges are Euro 56 per year. (Source: Capgemini.)
http://www.capgemini.com/finance/pubs/WRBReport2004.pdf

According to the British Bankers? Association, a UK customer pays Euro
50 per year for banking.
http://www.bba.org.uk/content/1/c4/46/44/International_comparisons_02.pdf

d.
Older people lose out because they do not shop around for financial products.
The FSA found that those aged over 55 were less likely to shop around
for financial products. Shopping around would save up to £37 per year
on a current account. Total monetary loss per year through not finding
the cheapest financial services is £203 for a retired single and £222
for a retired couple. This report also has a graph showing savings
account holders? interest rate loss by age. (Source: The Financial
Services Authority.)
http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pubs/occpapers/op19.pdf

A Northern Ireland consumer survey found that two percent of those
aged 65 years and older spent more than 10% of their monthly gross
income repaying credit and loans.

17% of those over the age of 65 did not know where to seek advice if
they were in financial difficulty.

65% of those over the age of 65 did not have any credit. (Source:
Taking the Credit. Consumer credit and debt in Northern Ireland.)
http://www.gccni.org.uk/online_documents/TakingTheCredit_final1.pdf


e.
Table 5 shows a typical consumers loss through not choosing the
cheapest provider for a number of demographic groups. (Source: FSA.)
http://www.fsa.gov.uk/pubs/occpapers/op19.pdf

Additional links:
Survey of pensioners? satisfaction with financial services.
(Source: South Yorkshire Pensions Authority.)
http://www.southyorks.org.uk/pensions/22%20July%202004/pensioner%20services%20sprovided%20by%20financial%20institutions.pdf


------------------------------------------------------
2. Overdraft fees.

a. Average overdraft fees per annum - £78
According to Egg, customers running an average overdraft with one of
the Big 4 banks can expect to be charged around £6.50 in interest each
month.
(Source: Avoid the £6 billion New Year overdraft trap. Money-365.com
network. 1st January 2003.)
http://money-365.com/article45.asp

According to Which magazine, UK banks charged their customers £3
billion for unauthorised overdrafts during the past year. (Source: UK
banks? £3bn overdraft ?sting?. BBC News.)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3621002.stm

According to the British Bankers Association, the average overdraft is
£1000. (Times Online.)
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,9554-1268244_4,00.html


b.
There do not appear to be any statistics on overdraft charges made to
pensioners, probably because they are unlikely to have an overdraft
(only 1% of householders over 60 are overdrawn.)

According to Help the Aged, many pensioners, especially older
pensioners, have a much more negative view of debt and borrowing than
the general population. They are less likely to have a credit card or
overdraft. (Source: Memorandum submitted by Help the Aged. SF36. 
Select Committee on Social Security. The United Kingdom Parliament.)
http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm200001/cmselect/cmsocsec/232/232ap24.htm


c. 
Overdrafts were especially common among young householders in their
twenties (24 per
cent) but then declined steeply with age so that only 1 per cent of
householders aged over
60 were overdrawn. They were the main source of credit for young
people in their teens
(23 per cent) and for young people aged under 25 who were still living
at home (23 per cent). Overdrafts were also strongly associated with
unstable incomes: 27 percent of household whose incomes had both
increased and decreased during the past twelve months had overdrawn
their current accounts. (Source: DTI.)

http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:iNLbIPPYfwYJ:www.dti.gov.uk/ccp/topics1/pdf1/mori2.pdf+uk+%22average+overdraft%22+pensioners&hl=en


Those most likely to be overdrawn after Christmas and therefore incur
fees are people aged between 16 and 24. 45% said they would be
overdrawn with an average balance of £626. Those least likely to be
overdrawn are people aged between 55 and 64.
http://money-365.com/article45.asp

A survey by the Bank of England shows how the level of overdraft
lending increases with income. For those with an income of less than
£4,500, 7 percent of their debt is in the form of an overdraft. For
those with an income of £60,000 or more, 25% of their debt is in the
form of an overdraft.
http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/qb/qb030402.pdf

The Prudential estimates that 2 million pensioners are in financial
difficulty. (Source: Debt Fact and Figures ? Compiled November 2004.
Credit Action.)
http://www.creditaction.org.uk/debtstats.htm

---------------------------------------------------
3. Financial errors.

a.
According to Energywatch, five million consumers received inaccurate
bills from their energy company. (Source: Five Million Inaccurate
Bills. 22 July 2003. Find a Property.)
http://www.findaproperty.co.uk/cgi-bin/story.pl?storyid=4959

According to NOP research, one in five energy consumers believe that
estimated bills they received are inaccurate. (Source: Energywatch.)
http://www.energywatch.org.uk/media/show_release.asp?article_id=421&display_type=office

b.
 Average time spent sorting out bills ? one and a quarter hours per
week. (Source: Women work it out. Simon P Ward. Msn Money.)
http://money.msn.co.uk/MyMoney/Insight/SpecialFeatures/Pennywise/Women/default.asp

c.
Success rate in resolving errors.
The National Complaints Culture Survey found that 70% of customers had
a response to a person to person complaint within one week. By
telephone the response rate was 56%. 23% of written complaints
received a response within two weeks.

Just 63% of employees were able to resolve 75% or more of the
complaints they receive.
http://www.tmi.co.uk/images/NCCSexecutive_summary.pdf

A study by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) found that 11% of
adults living in Britain had made a complaint to a financial services
organisation in the last three year. And 62% of respondents were
dissatisfied with the outcome of the complaint. 78% of those
dissatisfied chose to give up rather than attempting to make a further
complaint. (Source: Financial Services Authority UK 2002.
complaintsRgreat limited.)
http://www.complaintsrgreat.com/research.html


d. Problems faced by the elderly and infirm in resolving errors.
This report gives details of a number of individual cases. The CAB
found that call centres have not been proved to be accessible. Too
many consumers report extreme service shortcomings in the delivery of
call centres, often incorrectly leaving people living on very low
incomes in debt, out of pocket, feeling frustrated and under extreme
stress.
17% of respondents reported automated response systems as the most
annoying feature of phoning a call centre.
18% of people wanted to speak to someone face-to-face.
In 2002, the National Audit Office reported that only 60% of the
public were willing to receive advice and services from public sector
department and agencies. Older people were less willing to receive
services in this way than younger people.
17% of people reported being passed from person to person when they
contacted a call centre.
(Source: Hanging on the telephone. Citizens Advice.)
http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/hanging-on-the-telephone.pdf

---------------------------------------------
Problems faced by the elderly in claiming benefits.


Failure to claim benefits.
http://business.scotsman.com/finance.cfm?id=553782004

The Take-Up Of Multiple Means-Tested Benefits By British Pensioners.
http://www.le.ac.uk/economics/spe/multitakeup.pdf

According to Age Concern millions of pensioners pay too much tax and
fail to claim benefits. Up to 670,000 older people failed to claim
Minimum Income Guarantee (MIG), leaving up to £820 million unclaimed
every year. (Source: Pensioners ?miss out on millions?. BBC News.)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3142704.stm

Four out of ten pensioners miss out on an average of £426 cut to their
council tax bills. Three quarters of a billion pounds Council Tax
Benefit goes unclaimed. (Source: The Pension Service.)
http://www.thepensionservice.gov.uk/about_us/march/council-tax.asp

£ Billions left unclaimed while older people miss out ? Age Concern.
http://www.ageconcern.org.uk/AgeConcern/news_2669.htm>



<Additional links:>

<Just 4% of people over the age of 60 delay paying a utility bill.
(Source: £1 Billion owed to UK utility companies by late payers.>
<http://www.xansa.com/pressreleases/164738?view=NewsArchive>

<Consumer borrowing>
<http://www.dti.gov.uk/ccp/topics1/pdf1/morisum.pdf>

<Financial over-commitment survey.>
<http://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/macnn/mori-financial-survey2003.pdf>


<Search strategy:>

<uk "one in"" inaccurate bills">
<://www.google.com/search?q=uk+%22one+in%22%22+inaccurate+bills%22&hl=en&lr=>

<uk "bank charges" "average customer">
<://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=uk+%22bank+charges%22+%22average+customer%22>

<"national complaints culture survey" uk>
<://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&q=%22national+complaints+culture+survey%22+uk>

<uk "more likely to be overdrawn">
<://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&q=uk+%22more+likely+to+be+overdrawn%22>


<Hope this helps.>

Thank you Belinda. Your answer was well researched, clearly presented
and extremely helpful. It was exactly what I required.