“There is a person at the end of the process.” A joint blog by Barbara Hughes, Financial Conduct Authority, and Charlotte Liddell, a member of Fair By Design’s Lived Experience Advisory Panel. 

In May Charlotte, one of Fair By Design’s lived experience advisory panel members, spoke at the FCA internal event: Understanding the Power of Lived Experience. This blog is a reflection from Charlotte and Barbara on what it was like to speak at the event, and why it’s important for regulators to work with people with lived experience. 

My name is Charlotte and I live in Fife, Scotland. Most of my time is spent planning what I’m going to do with my time, but that’s common with ADHD. I don’t consider myself as a person who has free time, because there’s always something on my to-do list, whether that be uni work, helping my sons with their work, zoom meetings, travelling, training (not the gym kind), sometimes I’ll even be scheduling in time to watch the new crime documentaries on Netflix. 

I’ve been working with Fair By Design through Poverty Alliance since around 2024, joining the Give Me Some Credit photography project before becoming a member of the Lived Experience Advisory Panel. When the opportunity to speak at the FCA’s event came up, I said yes straight away. It would have been easy to leave it to someone else, but if people were willing to work through the logistics of having me there, I was willing to do anything possible to attend. I spoke with Maria, Fair By Design’s Head of Policy, beforehand to go over my thoughts, because while I’ve done public speaking before, having that time to prepare really calms my nerves. 

On the day, I spoke about my involvement in Give Me Some Credit and the panel, but I was clear from the start that my story couldn’t be understood in isolation. Lived experience almost never comes in isolation. While the focus of my speech was on the financial hardships I have faced, from economic abuse and the death of my father, I shared other aspects too, like being a lone parent and having ADHD. Had these aspects of me not been considered by Fair By Design, I wouldn’t have managed to participate in the project, the panel, or this event to my full capacity. 

I wanted to show the room that lived experience shouldn’t be seen as a nuisance or a tick box exercise, but as a crucial part of how their work should be informed. While it can be difficult to work with passionate lived experience participants, it’s okay not to know everything. If you just ask us, we will tell you the best way to communicate, how to share our stories, or how to involve us in ways that feel supportive and not tokenistic. But also, sometimes the issue isn’t the person, it’s the system they’re stuck in. 

Barbara Hughes from the FCA explained what makes this kind of work so important to them 

We all know that the population of the UK is diverse and one person’s financial life can vary hugely from the next. Different incomes, working situations, family structures, dependents and consequential needs all impact our financial lives. And consumers of financial services experience all sorts of difficult life events – to do our job well we need to be able stand in their shoes. 

For this event we aimed to show staff how and when lived experience research can add value for the FCA so that they actively consider its use in developing policy thinking where that is appropriate. We had a great response and will continue to look for opportunities to highlight lived experience. In particular, attendees referenced Charlotte’s personal appearance and story as a powerful and memorable part of the event. 

We know from our recent work how compelling lived experience can be. Hearing people’s stories reminds us that the consumers for whom we do our regulatory work every day are real people, sometimes with challenging financial lives. It is always important to remember that there is a person at the end of the process. In a world of AI and increasing focus on data and technology, we all need to hear the consumer voice and for firms to show understanding to their customers in vulnerable circumstances. And so we need to look for ways to help it cut through.  

We are grateful to Charlotte and the team at Fair By Design for championing this work and the members of our network who help us hear the consumer voice at first hand all the time. 

Conclusions from Charlotte 

The positive feedback I received made me emotional. As a huge part of my story is around the greatest loss I’ve ever faced, it isn’t always easy to share. And while this may not make sense to many, it also feels, in a way, that the kind words are a compliment to my dad. Because the way I am is because of him, and how he raised me. 

Changing people’s attitudes is just as important as changing legislation. My story starts with economic abuse, the loss of my parents, and bankruptcy, but it ends with me no longer being bankrupt, having savings, and working to improve the system rather than being stuck within it. So it shows others who might be going through the same thing that there is hope. 

For any organisation thinking about how to do this well, my message is simple: ask. Ask people what’s the best way to communicate, how to share their stories, and how to involve them in ways that feel supportive and not tokenistic. The answers are there. You just have to be willing to listen. 

By Charlotte Liddell (Fair By Design Lived Experience Panel Member) and Barbara Hughes (FCA Technical Specialist Consumer Policy and Partnerships).