Money, Finances and Insurance
An emergency can stop people getting paid, or stop them paying for things. Your community group can plan for this now.
This module shows you how to prepare, what to do during an emergency, and where to find support afterwards.
Why is this important?
Emergencies can include severe weather, disasters caused by the changing climate, and public health emergencies such as a pandemic. They affect people’s money in two ways
People can lose their income
An emergency can damage or destroy homes and businesses. People may have unexpected costs, like paying for temporary shelter and extra supplies. People can lose their jobs. They may need to take time of work to repair damage. This can also impact their income.
Cyber and financial attacks can also damage income. For example:
- cyber-attacks on businesses can lead to high costs for businesses. In turn, that can lead to job losses
- cyber-attacks can mean personal details being stolen by criminals, who commit fraud using stolen identities.
Payment systems can stop working
The systems that let people pay for things, and to be paid, can fail. This can be for many different reasons, including loss of electrical power, cyber-attacks and severe space weather.
| CYBER ATTACK | SEVERE SPACE WEATHER |
|---|---|
| An attempt to damage or break into a computer system | A burst of energy from the sun. It can damage power lines and computer systems. |
The group can work with their members, and other groups in your community, to help people plan for both problems. The next section shows some ideas of how that could work, but we know it is best when it feels the right way to approach it for your community.
What can my community do before an emergency?
Understand what could go wrong
Bring your wider community together to talk about money in an emergency. Talk about how different emergencies could affect money and finances.
Think about how different groups could be affected. People on a low income, older people, and people who run small businesses will face different problems.
Talk about what happens when payment systems fail. One event does not usually stop every payment system at once. Knowing which system has failed will help your community respond.
You can check the Community Risk Register (CRR) to find out more about the main emergencies that could affect your area. These are used by your Local Resilience Forum to plan for emergencies.
A Local Resilience Forum (LRF) brings together emergency services, councils, the NHS and other organisations to plan for emergencies.
Know where to access financial support
It can be hard to know where to go for support and advice. Financial help may come from different organisations and schemes.
Work with your community to build a list of financial support before an emergency happens. It can be hard to find in a hurry.
Your list should cover
- Crisis support in your area and across the UK
- Benefits advice
- Debt advice
- Insurance support
- Trusted community organisations
It can be helpful to name one person in your group to keep this list up to date. The support available can change, especially during and after an emergency, so check the list often and share the information across your group membership.
Support is often aimed at specific problems. Households and businesses may be offered different help. Different areas may be offered different help too. So make sure that is also shared with the group, depending on what kind of finances (personal or business) your group members have.
When a crisis hits, your group members will know where to go to get the right support.
Some people will find it harder to get support on their own. This is often true for people with additional needs.
This could be as simple as:
- Sharing details on your group social media channels, or
- Printing posters outlining different support options to put in local places like the post office, school, and cafe.
- Training volunteers to share details of support available. This matters most when volunteers carry out welfare checks.
Make your community’s finances ready for an emergency
The four steps below can help your community group and your wider community, so pass them on.
- Use more than one bank or building society: open a second account at a different bank or building society. If one of them is experiencing a problem, you may still be able to use the second.
- Hold cards from more than one card network: Visa and Mastercard are different kinds of payment ‘processor’. They handle the payment when you use your card. Hold cards from different processors, as well as different banks and building societies. Then you will be able to pay by card if one processor is not working.
- Be able to pay without your phone: Some people pay using an app on their phone. You may not be able to use your phone in an emergency. Print your recovery codes and store them somewhere safe. A recovery code is a backup code that lets you into an account without your phone.
- Check you can get into your accounts. Wages, benefits, pensions and help paid out after an emergency usually go straight into one named account. Check now that you can get into every account that you need. Some organisations, groups and businesses may have ‘dual control’ or ‘multi-person approval’. This means more than one person has to authorise an action. Talk to the shared account holders about what to do in an emergency.
Remember that not everyone can prepare. Some people in your community group may have:
- low income
- little or no savings
- debts
- a home they could lose
- trouble getting affordable insurance
Any of these can make it harder to prepare for and recover from a financial shock. When your community group is giving advice to your community on finance for emergencies, you may want to also include advice on:
- Where to get expert financial advice and crisis support
- Other ways to get ready that cost nothing, like joining the Priority Services Register [LINK The PSR - The Priority Services Register (PSR) is a free UK wide service which provides extra advice and support, including when there’s an interruption to your electricity or gas supply - PSR, if you qualify
Understand your insurance
Help your community understand insurance better. People need to check what their insurance covers before an emergency happens.
Insurance documents are hard to read but knowing what you are covered for makes a real difference.
A downloadable document to help understand insurance is available here. Download the Insurance Guide (PDF, 4.2 MB). This can help your wider community understand insurance better.
Top Tips:
- Check what your policy covers and what it doesn’t. For example, many insurance policies do not cover cash and prepaid cards at home.
- Keep your insurance up to date
- Keep your insurance documents somewhere safe and store copies of them online
- Save your insurer's contact details on your phone. Then they are easy to find in an emergency.
When conducting your Skills Audit you may find people in your local area who work in finance and insurance. Ask them to share what they know. They could run a workshop on insurance in your local library or cafe. Many employers give their staff paid days to volunteer, and staff can use these to help local charities and community organisations.
Insurance in high-risk areas:
Insurers now work with households and communities to help cut the risk of future emergencies. One scheme is called Build Back Better. This is led by Flood Re and is offered by many insurers. It pays up to £10,000, depending on the insurer and on who qualifies.
Make sure your community has access to cash
Electronic money payments can fail. This can happen in power outages, cyber attacks, or when phone and internet services go down.
Experts say that everyone should keep a small amount of cash at home in a safe place to buy supplies, fuel or food when card payment cannot be made. Some experts say that this should be enough to cover about one week of essential purchases like food and water.
Your group members might want to have different denominations of notes. It will not be so easy to get change if payment systems aren’t working.
Keep important documents somewhere safe
Help people in your community learn how to protect their important documents. Make sure your own group members know to keep their documents safe too.
During or after an emergency, people often need the right documents to get access to their money and other support. Fires, floods and other disasters can destroy identity documents, financial records and account log-in details.
This makes it harder to recover from an emergency. This is because every recovery process begins by asking people to prove who they are and what they had. This includes insurance claims and some financial support.
Important documents include:
- Passports
- Driving Licenses
- Birth Certificates
- Account Details
- Property Details
- Insurance documents
- Contracts
- Payroll Numbers
- Tax Numbers
If you save copies online, make sure that they are encrypted. Encryption scrambles a file so that only someone with the password can read it. This makes files safer from cyber attacks.
During an emergency
Tell people where to find support.
Your community group can use their social media channels and talk to people in person.
Use the skills in your community
People who can translate, or who work in finance or insurance, can help those who need extra support.
If an emergency has happened in your area, your group may want to raise money for the people affected.
Some top tips for fundraising in an emergency include:
- Work with a registered local charity
- Start raising money quickly
- Think carefully about what you say on your fundraising page, because it can affect how you can use the money
- Get the money to people who need it quickly
- Decide at the start what will happen to any money left over.
- Make it easy to apply
- Keep all personal information safe.
- Let people decide what they need
If you or a member of your community needs to make an insurance claim:
Check our downloadable insurance guide for more information on how to make a claim.
A flood, fire, burst pipe or theft may damage someone’s home or belongings.
Tell them to contact their insurer as soon as possible. Most insurers will have a helpline that is open 24 hours a day.
Prevent further damage. Arrange temporary repairs to stop the damage getting worse, if it is safe to do so. Contact your insurer first for advice. Keep the receipts for emergency repairs. You may be able to include them in your claim.
Keep damaged items. Don’t throw them away straight away. Your insurer may want to inspect them before settling your claim.
The only exception is items that create a health risk, such as spoiled food. Take photographs before you throw anything away. Keep samples of damaged materials, such as carpets of fabrics, where you can.
More information on how to make an insurance claim after an emergency is available here: Download How to make an insurance claim (PDF, 1.4 MB)
After an emergency
It can take a long time to recover from a crisis. Keep helping your community find the money advice and support they need.
People may be dealing with:
- Lost income
- Losing their jobs and businesses
- The cost of somewhere else to stay, extra travel, and repairs
- Long waits for financial support
Work with your community to keep your list of support up to date. Check in with people months after the emergency, as well as in the first few weeks.