Daredevil: Mike Ellicock now helps financial firms use plain English
A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of meeting with Mike Ellicock, an individual with a daredevil military background – and more recently on a crusade to get the financial services industry to disentangle itself from jargon.
Like many ex-military personnel who have witnessed things most of us will (thankfully) only ever see in a war movie, Mike is incredibly self-effacing.
For the record, he helped rescue soldiers kidnapped in Sierra Leone in 2000 (and was badly injured in the process) and then served in Iraq.
He is also adept at running marathons with a heavy pack on his back – he holds world records for doing so – and takes part in Herculean physical challenges such as the Bob Graham Round.
This involves running up and down 42 Lake District peaks, negotiating 27,000ft of ascent and completing the 66-mile course in less than 24 hours.
Mike did it six years ago in an astonishing time of 18 hours and 34 minutes (and no, I won’t be doing it when I’m in the Lakes over the summer).
Although in awe of Mike’s physical feats, it is his work in the financial arena that fascinates me the most. Upon leaving the Forces, he spent nine years as chief executive of National Numeracy, a charity set up to raise numeracy skills among both the young and old.
Only recently, Rishi Sunak talked about plans to ensure all young people leave school armed with enough knowledge of mathematics to be numerate. Three years ago, Mike co-founded The Plain Numbers Project, an organisation designed to help firms present key financial information to customers in documents in a more user-friendly way.
The work it has done has been ground-breaking. By getting companies to rework their literature, replacing jargon with plain English, customers’ understanding of the products they hold (and how they work) has improved markedly. Being better informed means they are less vulnerable to making costly mistakes – and are able to keep on top of their finances.
Of course, customer-friendly documents can’t disguise bad news such as big insurance premium hikes or an energy account in deficit. But it should be a given that any information supplied to customers can be easily understood.
More power to Mike’s elbow.
Batten down the hatches
Yes, we’re firmly in the mire. Whichever way you dissect Thursday’s decision by the Bank of England to increase the bank base rate to five per cent, it’s not good news.
Although fingers can be pointed at Bank of England boss Andrew Bailey for failing to get a grip of inflation quickly enough, this won’t help any homeowner who now faces higher mortgage payments and greater stress on their household finances.
Friday’s raft of mortgage support measures agreed by banks and building societies is welcome, although let’s not get carried away. For sure, the squeeze on household finances will remain until rates finally turn the corner.
What I find most depressing about all this is its destructiveness. I find it hard to accept that Bailey – and for that matter Rishi Sunak and Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt – now believe recession is a price worth paying if higher interest rates result in inflation being conquered.
In other words, it is OK for people’s jobs – in some cases, their homes – and small businesses started by budding entrepreneurs to be sacrificed in the pursuit of inflation annihilation. In my eyes, it’s the policy of the madhouse. Surely, there is another way (answers on a postcard, please).
The only comfort, and it is a small one, is that the current occupations of Bailey, Sunak and Hunt are as much in jeopardy as our own. Batten down the hatches, dear readers.
Inflation is not cause of cover hikes
Earlier this month, the chief executive of Admiral UK was one of three insurance representatives who sat before the Treasury Select Committee and defended the industry against accusations of unjustified premium increases.
Blaming double-digit increases for car and home cover on rising claims costs (a result of rampaging inflation), Cristina Nestares came across quite well – and left relatively unscathed.
Yet I can’t help thinking that Nestares is pulling the wool over our eyes. In the wake of her performance before the TSC, I was contacted by numerous readers complaining about Admiral asking them to renew motor policies at prices 50 per cent higher than the previous year. This is despite a record of no-claims and exemplary driving.
Among those to contact me was Martin Waller, a former financial journalist at The Times, who is now enjoying retirement with his wife in Woodbridge, Suffolk.
Despite living in an area where crime is almost non-existent and carjackings unheard of, insurer Diamond (an Admiral-owned brand) has just sent him a jaw-dropping renewal notice for his motor cover. Diamond wanted 53 per cent more than it did last year to cover Martin’s car, a 12-year-old Hyundai that he uses purely to get around locally.
Understandably, Martin was not impressed. He complained straightaway and after speaking to the insurer, he was offered a lower premium, albeit still 30 per cent higher than last year.
A follow-up letter from Diamond confirmed that inflation was the main reason for the 53 per cent increase. He has now found alternative cover cheaper than last year’s premium. Martin doesn’t believe the inflation explanation (we aren’t at 53 per cent yet). He thinks insurers are using it to profiteer. I agree.
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