The Right Mortgage & Protection Network has launched a vulnerability hub for members ahead of the end of the government’s furlough programme.

The broker network says the platform includes interactive information on vulnerable customers, sales aids, and Time to Talk, which it says is “a ‘safe place’ for advisers to go to if they need more support personally, which also includes information around supporting adviser firm’s staff through Covid and other external influences”.

It also includes a, “vulnerability checklist, which will become mandatory to complete a full assessment of each individual customer”.

The mortgage industry is braced for the end of the government’s pandemic furlough programme at the end of this month, which may create more vulnerable customers who find it difficult to meet loan payments.

There were currently 1.9 million workers on the Treasury’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme at the end of June, according to HMRC data released this week. This is a fall of 590,000 from the end of May.

The Right Mortgage Network chief executive Martin Wilson says: “Vulnerability is often attributed to older clients or those with varying degrees of capacity; this project, however, aims to highlight the different types of clients who could be classed as vulnerable and draws an important focus for advisers in how they identify these clients and adjust their processes and behaviours accordingly.”