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 BoE 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.
NS&I boss heeds our call to give prize rate a boost
It appears the new boss of NS&I, the Government-backed savings organisation, is a good listener – and also an avid reader of The Mail on Sunday.
Seven days ago, encouraged by many loyal NS&I customers, I urged chief executive Dax Harkins to give Premium Bond savers a lift. He duly obliged.
The result is that from next month, the prize rate (the effective interest rate) will increase from 3.3 to 3.7 per cent, its highest for 15 years.
Of course, it won’t mean bondholders will now earn prizes equivalent to 3.7 per cent per annum – that’s not the way Premium Bonds work, with monthly prizes determined by Ernie, the Electronic Random Number Indicator Equipment. Yet there will be more winnings available with savers sharing a greater number of prizes valued between £50 and £100,000.
I’m a big fan of Premium Bonds. The prizes are tax-free and they make wonderful gifts for children and grandchildren (grandsons Arthur and Archie have received a few bonds in recent months).
I also quite like using the NS&I Prize Draw Checker app at the start of every month to see whether I have won anything. A bit of light relief to offset all the doom and gloom.
In the past six months, on a modest holding, I’ve received £175 of prizes – money gratefully received and put towards a summer’s walking holiday in the Lake District. Martin Grugeon, from Trowbridge in Wiltshire, was among those who asked me last week to give the NS&I boss a nudge about the Premium Bond prize rate.
Upon learning of the prize rate rise on Tuesday, he told me: ‘Well done Jeff. I knew that a few words from myself and yourself in your column would do the trick.’
They certainly did (thank you Martin). To all Premium Bond holders out there, the very best of luck in July’s draw. Remember: someone out there has to win the £1 million prize.
Let me know if it’s you.
