Designing safer spending for everyone
- Joanne Dewar
- Apr 12
- 3 min read
Updated: Apr 13
Written by Joanne Dewar of Project Nemo, this post explores the challenges adults with a learning disability face in managing everyday spending within today’s financial systems. It highlights how mainstream banking and payments products often fail to meet their needs, leading many families to rely on informal and potentially risky workarounds.
The piece calls for a more inclusive approach to financial design, bringing together banks, fintechs and regulators to create safer, more supportive solutions. It emphasises the importance of simple, flexible features and clear ways for trusted supporters to offer help – ensuring people can maintain independence while accessing the help they need.
Project Nemo began with a simple observation: for many adults with a learning disability, everyday spending is far harder – and riskier – than it needs to be.
This isn’t because people lack capability or aspiration. It’s because mainstream financial products are designed around assumptions that don’t hold true for this group: perfect memory, confidence with numbers, comfort with digital interfaces, and the ability to navigate systems alone.
Our research shows that most adults with a learning disability want the same things as everyone else: independence, dignity, and control over their own money. But it also highlighted the scale of the challenge.
There are 1.5 million adults in the UK with a learning disability. Many face higher living costs, lower incomes, and poorer financial wellbeing than their peers.
But the way today’s banking and payments systems work often pushes them into unsafe workarounds. Families drip-feed cash, share PINs, impersonate their loved
ones on the phone, or rely on informal arrangements that sit uncomfortably between
independence and protection.
These workarounds keep life moving – but they also create real risks.
The good news is that the solutions are neither radical nor expensive. Much of what’s
needed already exists in fragments across banking, fintech and payments. The challenge is to assemble these tools into offers that are intentionally designed for people who need support with everyday spending.
Practically, that means starting with a small number of high-impact features. Simple saving pots that clearly separate “spend” from “save”. Spend limits that can be set collaboratively and adjusted over time. Real-time notifications that help someone pause before a transaction goes through, rather than discovering a problem afterwards. Calm, simplified app modes that reduce overload and anxiety.
And clear ways for a trusted supporter to help – without removing the person’s sense of ownership or requiring full legal control. This might include setting up alerts that notify both the individual and their supporter, enabling shared visibility without shared control. Supporters could help review transactions, provide encouragement, or step in temporarily during moments of stress or vulnerability.
Crucially, boundaries must be clear: the person remains in charge, with the supporter acting as a safety net – not a gatekeeper.
Equally important is flexibility. Adults with a learning disability are not a single group. Needs change with age, confidence, income and life events. Products must allow people to dial support up or down, rather than forcing a binary choice between full independence and full control by someone else.
This is not about creating “special” accounts that sit on the margins. Inclusive design done well improves outcomes for many other groups too: people with cognitive decline, mental health challenges, low confidence with money, or simply those navigating stressful life transitions.
Recent research from the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute shows that nearly half (46%) of people in problem debt also have a mental health problem – a stark reminder of how financial systems can either support or compound distress.
Project Nemo’s work shows that when we design for safe spending, we unlock something powerful: greater independence for individuals, reassurance for families, and simpler, more resilient systems for providers.
The task now is to move from insight to implementation – working together across banks, fintechs and regulators to make everyday money genuinely work for everyone.
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