Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The qualitative research aimed to investigate the feasibility of using home service as a means of raising levels of financial literacy and providing support services for the financially excluded. It was recognised in the proposal that home service provision for savings was in decline. However, when the research began, approximately two years after the proposal had been written, very little industrial branch, home service insurance was still in existence. Also, unfortunately, the one large company still operating in the field (which has subsequently closed for new business) refused the researchers access. Therefore the objectives were changed to include an investigation of the demise of industrial branch insurance and its implications. Nevertheless, in-depth research was carried out with three organisations that offered new business to clients. In finding that a sub-prime or near-prime market for credit delivered at the home, either through face-to-face or electronic media, was expanding dramatically, efforts were rebalanced in this area to investigate their implications for financial literacy and social exclusion. The research also aimed to examine changes in financial regulation that might balance the aim of improving financial literacy for marginal groups but meet the demands of providers for some margin of profit at the lower end of the market. Researchers followed a pilot for a modified ordinary branch sales process testing out the delivery system for new, lower cost products due to come online later in 2004.

Main Topics:

The data set contains transcript material from interviews with: key informants in home service insurance companies; home collected credit companies; regulatory agencies; focus groups with users of door-to-door delivered financial services companies. The particular focus of this research project was the apparent anachronism of the survival into the early twenty-first century of a relic form of financial services delivery system, that is, door-to-door provision, in an era of largely branch-based and increasingly, telephone and internet-mediated systems. Door-to-door delivery systems for financial services emerged first in the nineteenth century, and signalled the development of mass retail financial markets. Evolving from the earliest Friendly Societies, the pioneers were the industrial branch insurance companies that took advantage of the high density populations in urban areas to sell services to working class households. This sector, which became known as Home Service in the 1960s, continued to thrive until Financial Services Authority regulations in the 1990s began to threaten the viability of its door-to-door operations. By late 2003, all Home Service insurance companies had abandoned new industrial branch business and had either outsourced their door-to-door collections of existing business to specialist agencies or converted them to the status of ordinary branch, where payments are generally collected through remote electronic means. The material in this database provides perspectives on door-to-door financial services from both the industry and its customers.

Purposive selection/case studies

Face-to-face interview

Telephone interview

Observation