What I learned during my tenure as the govt’s disability ambassador

To be fair, my departure has not seen the coverage afforded to another ambassador called Peter, who also ended his tenure this September.

While the Disability Ambassador role hasn’t meant a series of lavish dinners, international events, and cocktails on the White House lawn, it has been hugely rewarding.

There are some 20 Disability Ambassadors, all voluntary roles, across industries from advertising to universities.

The aim is to encourage improvements in the accessibility and quality of services and facilities in their sector for disabled people.

My successor is Eddie Grant [of the Personal Finance Society].

He is highly qualified for the role, not just because he has got more letters after his name than I’ve got in mine, but because he has got an evident and informed passion for supporting disabled customers and colleagues.

Reflections on the role

I’ve shared here just a few reflections on some of the many lessons I’ve learned in my own time in the role.

Supporting disabled customers and colleagues really matters

There are legal and regulatory reasons why we should care – most obviously the 2010 Equality Act and, of course, our Consumer Duty obligations. There are social and moral reasons. But there are sound business reasons too.

In the UK, some seven million people of working age have a disability

They, together with their families, have a spending power, known as the “purple pound”, worth around £274bn, and they want to spend on products and services that work for them.

In the workplace, colleagues with disabilities will often bring greater resilience, different thinking and problem-solving capabilities, and can reflect a significant proportion of our customer base, but can also represent a well of untapped talent.

We have a two-speed system for protection

The need to maximise access to protection insurance has never been greater.

We’ve seen an increasing focus on personalisation, more granular underwriting and pricing, ‘buy now’ and ‘straight through processing’, which can bring benefits to many customers and advisers.

However, it fuels a two-speed market, where those with more complex medical histories are having to wait longer, something compounded by the current NHS challenges.

The NHS is focused on three strategic shifts - moving care from hospital to community, from treatment to prevention, and implementing digital transformation. All will impact our industry.

Access to a patient’s digital health record, with appropriate, informed consent, could be transformational to our ability to underwrite and pay claims quickly and we need to continue to work with Government bodies to accelerate this.

We’re pointing in the right direction

There will be many thousands of advisers who are confident in having protection conversations but for those whose focus and specialism lies elsewhere, there are more options than ever.

They can effect mutually beneficial partnerships with specialist firms or refer the client to the BIBA ‘Find a Broker’ service.

The continued and growing willingness to ‘signpost’ customers has meant many more individuals getting cover who might otherwise be left without it. BIBA, in their 2025 manifesto, are pushing to extend signposting further.

We don’t make the most of group risk for smaller companies

Other than for high levels of cover for a select few, there’s essentially no underwriting with group risk products.

This means those in employment with long-term health conditions can get cover that might otherwise be hard to obtain.

The insurance model of procuring and pooling vocational rehabilitation with financial benefits and other health services is both cost-effective and well-suited to SMEs.

It gives employees at small companies access to human resource facilities that their employers may not themselves be able to offer.

However, too many small employers have no idea of the benefits, which is a marketing and business opportunity which may be buoyed by the current government initiatives to ‘Keep Britain Working’.

There is a sense of fear we need to overcome

There are a lot of fears: an employee’s fear of disclosing an illness, an employer’s fear of trying to help an employee back to work lest they end up at a tribunal, or that reasonable adjustments for disabled employees cost more than they actually do; a general fear of doing or saying the wrong thing in relation to disability; a customer’s fear that they can never get insurance; an adviser’s fear that protection is too hard.

These are obstacles, but there are things we can do to address all of these.

There’s a real coalition of the willing

I’ve learned a huge amount from so many people – disabled people, representative groups, advisers, consultants, competitors and more.

For more insight, try following Robbie Crow, Mike Adams, Amanda Kirby and Johnny Timpson, to name but a few.

Perhaps the main message though, is how reassuring it is that we work in an industry where people are prepared to compete appropriately, but also to collaborate for the greater good.

And if you want to get more directly involved, I know our new Ambassador would love to hear from you.

Peter Hamilton is head of market engagement for Zurich