Falling energy bills offset higher rent and mortgage costs ahead of August
The latest Barclays Property Insights report reveals that rising mortgage costs were offset by falling energy bills in July, while the Bank of England’s base rate reduction on 1st August gave consumers a confidence boost – even though half of mortgage holders recognise it won’t impact their repayments in the near future. Meanwhile, renters and homeowners are becoming increasingly interested in news about the UK economy, to have a better understanding of the factors impacting their housing costs.
- Consumer spending on utilities decreased by 7.5% in July due to Ofgem’s energy price cap reductions
- Rent and mortgage payments increased year-on-year, but declined 3.8% month-on-month
- The Bank of England’s base rate reduction on August 1st boosted consumer confidence
- 57% feel more confident about living within their means after the rate reduction
- Retail spending on household categories continued to decline
- Renters feel more financially vulnerable than homeowners
- Many Brits are unfamiliar with financial terms like ‘MPC’ and ‘swap rates’
- 15% of renters and mortgage holders have become more engaged with economic news
- Consumers use various sources for mortgage information, with younger people favouring social media and family advice
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Changes to Proc fees:
There has been a few changes, mainly in relation to Market Harborough, Cambridge, Lendinvest in particular this has been around specialist lending products including bridging and product transfers. This isn’t surprising, especially product transfers given the turbulent interest rate environment at the moment, and although interest rates are coming down I’d suspect overtime we’ll probably see customers continue to look for better rates.
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Anita White
Head of Lender Relationships
Equity Release and Acre; the story continues!
Thank you all of our advisers with the recent transition to Acre. To our equity release advisers, exciting times ahead with our product being fully end to end interactive by the end of the year. We will be welcoming an interactive factfind, seamlessly flowing into sourcing, whilst all building your suitability letter in the background ready for personalisation. Watch this space for more to come!
If you missed our online How To training session on Friday 9th August, this was recorded. You can find the recorded session here
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Victoria Clark
Head of Equity Release
Misrepresentation: tackling the next challenge
Having spoken a lot with the good people at Guardian about their recent claims report, and seeing the staggering figures and numbers behind the claims paid and amounts; naturally the question around the numbers of unpaid claims arises.
This is not to takeaway from the positives of the report- anyone who has seen it will have noticed the 100% of Life, 100% Terminal illness, 92% Critical Illness and Children’s critical illness* that have been paid out by Guardian and the phenomenal job they have done to bridge the gap for those cases that might not fall under a certain category.
However, even they will admit that transparency is key and will not shy away from the harder question; what about the small amount that did not receive their payout.
Enter the next buzzword in the industry: Misrepresentation. From the report “there were seven declined adult claims, all for critical illness cover. Just one was denied because it did not meet the definition and another six due to misrepresentation.”
So, what does it all mean, what are the industry doing to tackle this and what can you as advisers do to avoid the inevitable confusion and sadness felt by your client if a claim is not supported through to payout?
Competition Winner!
Big congratulations to Daryl Clarke of Endurance Mortgages Ltd for winning the “Apply Competition” from iPipeline! Over the course of the last 6 weeks the network put in a record amount of applications through the Apply button.
Daryl, your £100 amazon voucher from iPipeline should be winging it’s way to you shortly!
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Amanda Wilson
Company Director
The importance of building in mental health cover in your client’s private medical insurance plan
As society becomes more aware of the importance of mental health well-being, it is essential that we consider building this in as an additional benefit, whether we are looking at Individual PMI business or Group PMI.
One in five children and young children aged between eight to twenty-five are being identified as having probable mental health disorder. The increasing number in mental health diagnosis is making it difficult to receive the services and treatment people require because of NHS waiting times.
The British Medical Association reported that in August 2023, 7.75 million patients were waiting for treatment in England. This is the highest number since records began in 2007, and it’s expected to continue to rise.
The combination of a health-conscious population and dissatisfaction with the NHS means that people are turning to private medical insurance to access a wider range of medical services, with little-to-no wait time.
Things to think about;
- When reviewing your client’s policy, check to see if they have access to mental health support? Do they have the benefit on their existing plan or do they have any support through work?
- How are your business clients offering mental support to their staff
- Do children have access to mental health support, should they require it
Further reading:
United Healthcare GlobalCoffee Mornings:
Coffee Morning Session recorded on 08th August 2024. Join us for the first Coffee Morning back after our PMI Summit. This session covers how The Network works with our Equity Release Supervision and Development Managers Kate Glover and Rebecca Egerton and what we offer our advisers and clients within the Later Life Lending space. We are also joined by Thomas Harris from Bupa Global for a much needed health plan product refresh!
If you missed it we have links to our recorded sessions which will earn you CPD time:
PMI Coffee Morning August Catch up.
Shout out!
A massive congratulations to Angela Ward who achieved her PMI CAS this month. We know it isn’t easy, so well done!
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Bipin Sandhu
PMI Supervision & Development Manager
Automating the process for you to fix home insurance into the home buying journey easily
Have you seen on Acre you can refer effortlessly to Uinsures expert team in just a few clicks and they’ll take care of your clients?
CX automates the process making it easy for you to fix home insurance into the home buying journey easily! If this doesn’t take your fancy The Right Mortgage give you other options for referring. You can either refer into our in-house GIS or you can refer into a provider such as Paymentshield: who has all of the expertise and knowledge to be able to speak to your client confidently about how important home insurance is for them.
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Amy Wilson
Head of General Insurance (PMI and GI)
