Vulnerable Customers

Vulnerable customers is a defined category under Ofcom's rules. It covers people in mental or physical health difficulty, anyone who relies on a care line, alarm pendant, or lift phone, customers with cognitive impairment, financial hardship, recent bereavement, or those in domestic abuse situations. Providers must identify these customers and support them with extra care.

What it actually means

Vulnerable customers is the term Ofcom uses for any household where the standard way of selling, billing, and supporting a phone or broadband service might cause harm if applied without thought. The category is broad on purpose. It includes people living with serious mental or physical health conditions, anyone who depends on a care line or alarm pendant or a lift phone to call for help, customers with cognitive impairment or dementia, people in financial hardship, recent bereavement, and those in a domestic abuse situation where account access itself is a safety issue.

Vulnerability isn't a fixed status either. It can be temporary. Someone recovering from surgery, sitting through chemotherapy, going through a divorce, or in the first months after losing a partner can need a different kind of support for a while and then not need it later. Anyone can need extra support at some point, and Ofcom expects providers to be set up for that, not surprised by it.

At home

What this looks like in the house

If you're the adult child looking after a parent who lives alone with a pendant alarm around their neck, the PSTN switch off is the thing keeping you awake. That alarm dials out over the old copper voice line, and when the line is moved to digital voice it stops working in a power cut unless there's a battery backup or a 4G fallback fitted. The risk isn't theoretical, it's your mum on the kitchen floor with a button that won't connect. This is exactly what the vulnerable customer rules are designed for.

In business

What this looks like at work

For a care home manager or a residential park operator, vulnerability sits across multiple lines, not one. Lift alarms, pull cords in bathrooms, pendants worn by residents, the emergency phone on the gate. Every one of those is a regulated safety device that has to keep working through the PSTN switch off, scheduled to complete by January 2027. The provider you choose has to understand which lines need battery backup, which need 4G fallback, and how to log every device against the right resident or unit so nothing slips through the move.

The Inspire approach

Connection Matters

How we'd handle this if you were our customer

We have a dedicated page at /vulnerable-customers laying out exactly what extra support looks like, who qualifies, and how to flag yourself or a family member on the account. Megan inside the business is our Customer Support and Customer Vulnerability Lead, and her job is to make sure those flags actually mean something day to day, from the way we answer the phone in 60 seconds to how we plan a switchover for a household with a pendant alarm. Ranked number one internet provider in the UK on Trustpilot with 600+ reviews, we'd rather take longer onboarding a vulnerable customer well than rush a sale we can't deliver safely.

Questions, answered

Frequently asked about Vulnerable Customers

Who counts as a vulnerable customer with a broadband provider?

Anyone whose circumstances mean the standard service could cause harm without extra care. That includes people with serious health conditions, anyone reliant on a care line, pendant alarm, or lift phone, customers with cognitive impairment, those in financial hardship, recent bereavement, or domestic abuse situations. Ofcom expects providers to be able to identify and support these customers, and the status can be permanent or temporary.

What happens to a pendant alarm in the PSTN switch off?

Most pendant alarms dial out over the analogue voice line. When that line is moved to digital voice it stops working in a power cut unless there's a battery backup unit or a 4G fallback router fitted. With the PSTN switch off due to complete by January 2027, vulnerable users on pendants or care lines need their provider to plan the move with the alarm supplier, test the device after switchover, and document what happens in an outage.

How do I tell my broadband provider I need extra support?

You can flag it during sign up or any time after. With Inspire you can register via /vulnerable-customers or just tell whoever picks up the phone. We add a note to the account so anyone who deals with you sees it, and Megan, our Customer Vulnerability Lead, oversees how those notes are acted on day to day.

Where to next

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