School of Law academic tackles financial exclusion for adults with learning disabilities
Dr Pearl is part of the Project Nemo Collaboration, a cross-sector leadership team working to improve access to accessible payment options for adults with learning disabilities.
Access to money and the ability to use everyday payment facilities is essential for every element of our daily lives. Without it we cannot pay for basic life essentials, access leisure facilities or pay for utility or telecommunication services. Ultimately, we cannot operate in the social world in safe and secure ways.
There are around 1.5 million people in the UK with learning disabilities and research suggests that they are consistently amongst the most financially excluded groups in society. This perpetuates issues around social exclusion, disability poverty, and the potential risks of financial abuse. Watch Project Nemo’s video about this here.
Risky or slow ‘workaround’ solutions
Inaccessible banking and payment systems mean that adults with learning disabilities are often faced with the choice between informal risky ‘workaround’ solutions like sharing their cards and pin numbers with family and trusted friends, or adopting formal legal authorisations such as Lasting Power of Attorneys or Deputyships under which another person is legally appointed to help manage a person’s money.
These measures can be costly, slow to set up, and do not really improve accessibility by making changes which would allow adults with learning disabilities to have more control over their day-to-day financial lives. The Project Nemo collaboration is a cross-sector call to action which centres the voices of people with learning disabilities and their supporters to try and tackle this exclusion across legal, regulatory, banking, fintech, academic and third sector organisations.
Driving progress
The project is being spearheaded by Joanne Dewar at Project Nemo, and Kathryn Townsend, Head of Customer Vulnerability at Nationwide and the Government Disability & Access Ambassador for the banking sector. Dr Alex Louise Pearl is part of a leadership team drawing together experts and change-makers from across sectors to drive progress.
On 6 December 2024 the team held a launch event at Nationwide HQ in London, which brought together banks, FinTechs, trade bodies, regulators, government, the financial services community, law makers, public sector bodies, interest groups, and individuals with lived experience, to encourage cross-sector collaboration on finding effective solutions.
Since the launch event, there has been a huge amount of positive engagement across sectors. Four workstreams have been established to focus on:
- Research and Insights
- Legal and Regulatory Considerations
- Existing Solutions (which need to be showcased), and
- New Solutions (developing new opportunities and innovations in the FinTech sector)
Inclusion and Accessibility Innovation Challenge
Project Nemo has just launched an Inclusion and Accessibility Innovation Challenge with Fintech Fringe and the Payments Association, inviting fintech innovators to showcase their ideas and concepts to tackle financial exclusion for people with learning disabilities. Winners will have the opportunity to pitch their concepts to over 6000 industry professionals and leaders at the Pay360 event and to work with corporate partners to bring their solutions to life.
The Project Nemo collaboration will be ongoing throughout 2025. If you would like to know about Project Nemo’s Work and the forthcoming outputs, please visit the website and/or get in touch with Dr Pearl.
Dr Pearl says:
The Project Nemo collaboration has allowed me to join an exceptional team of people who have the knowledge, networks, and skillsets to achieve tangible change across legal, regulatory, policy, banking and fintech sectors to develop new accessible payment options and to help tackle financial exclusion for people with learning disabilities.
As a disability law researcher, a core objective of my Research Fellowship is to contribute to real world change. I have had the opportunity to use my research to help inform the Project Nemo agenda and the strategic objectives for change.
Drawing upon the expertise of Professor Anna Lawson within the School of Law, we have introduced new knowledge-partners into the Project Nemo initiative. I am proud to be a part of the continued efforts to use academic research to improve social justice outcomes for disabled people. It is a real privilege to be part of the Project Nemo team.
Dr Pearl is a UKRI ESRC Postdoctoral Research Fellow, a member of the Executive Group for the Centre for Disability Studies, a member of the Centre for Law and Social Justice and a trustee of Disability Rights Charity Ability Beyond Borders.
