The Insurance Charity – Brad Jackson, Managing Director, Catalyst Services UK interview with CEO of The Insurance Charity, Helen Sanson.  

In the lead up to The Insurance Charity annual awareness week (23 – 27 June), Brad Jackson, Managing Director, Catalyst Services UK caught up with Helen Sanson, the new CEO at the Charity. Here they discuss the history and future of the organisation, who is eligible for support, what support is available, and how the insurance industry can get involved in the upcoming campaign.  

Helen joined The Insurance Charity in March 2025. She is no stranger to the insurance sector, having partnered with Lloyd’s and over 30 managing agencies in her previous role providing employability skills to young people in London. 

She joins at an exciting time for the Charity following a recent rebrand, which was introduced to reach even more people in insurance across the UK and Ireland. 

Brad is a council member of the Insurance Institute of Manchester and has the privilege of being both a volunteer Visitor and Ambassador for The Insurance Charity across the Northwest. 

The Visitor role involves conducting home visits to people who have applied for assistance from the Charity and undertaking regular reviews with those receiving support. In his role as an Ambassador, he helps to raise awareness of the Charity locally with those in the insurance sector.  

Brad 

As a previous applicant to the Charity over 10 years ago, I have a passion for raising awareness and a drive to give back my time to such a valuable organisation. 

Helen, in a nutshell can you explain what The Insurance Charity does? 

Helen 

We offer financial support and practical guidance to current and former insurance professionals in the UK and Ireland. So, if you’ve worked in insurance and experienced hardship you and any dependants such as children or partners may also be eligible for help. 

Brad 

Could you give us some background on the Charity. For example, how did it start? 

Helen 

We’re certainly not a new charity. We were established in the City of London in 1902 as The Insurance Clerks Orphanage which originally supported widows and orphans. The Insurance Benevolent Fund was established nearly 30 years later to widen the Charity’s reach. The two charities merged in 2004 to become The Insurance Charities. We’ve made some further changes recently but more on that later! 

Brad 

Can you talk us through the eligibility criteria for those making an application?  

Helen 

Firstly, it’s important to stress that you don’t need to be in crisis to reach out the Charity. There are lots of ways we could help. We all go through challenging times and people working in insurance are no exception. 

• So, both working and non-working people can apply including those who have retired, looking for work or on maternity leave for example. 

• It doesn’t matter what role you’ve had in the industry. You could have an insurance specific role such as an underwriter or broker or you could work in marketing, IT or HR for example. 

• It doesn’t matter how long you’ve spent in the industry. This is a recent change for the Charity, so whether you’ve spent your whole career or just a few months in the insurance world you can apply for our support if you meet the other criteria. 

• Applicants need to be experiencing financial hardship and need to have suffered misfortune. By misfortune we mean something unexpected that has happened that has led someone to struggle financially such as ill health, disability, redundancy, or domestic abuse.  

Brad 

So, what support can the Charity offer? 

Helen  

We can offer both financial support and practical guidance – sometimes it will be a combination of the two. We look at every application on a case-by-case basis to provide a tailored package of support to an individual or family.  

Financial support can be offered on a one-off or ongoing basis depending on the circumstances. Also, we sometimes provide charitable loans to applicants but unless someone has received one of these you would not need to repay anything the Charity has provided.  

Last year we awarded over £1.4 million to insurance people in the UK and Ireland. We paid for things such as property adaptations, mobility aids, rehabilitation, physiotherapy, furniture, electrical appliances, and support for day-to-day essentials such as food, travel, and rent. 

The practical guidance we can offer could include signposting to other charities and organisations (including Shelter who we have partnered with) or providing advice on budgeting and money management. 

Brad 

What would you say to anyone who is reluctant to contact the charity but feels they may need support? 

Helen 

We all need help from time to time and that’s nothing to feel embarrassed about. People don’t need to tell their employer they have approached the Charity as they are not involved in the process. Everything we do is handled in confidence and we are independent of any employer or membership organisation. 

Brad 

So, how do people apply? 

Helen 

In the first instance, we’d advise everyone to visit our website and read the eligibility page to understand if they are likely to qualify for support. We also have an FAQ section which people may find helpful. 

There’s a short online application form to complete and this is it for the first stage. If people struggle with completing forms for whatever reason we’d encourage people to give us a call and we can support people with that process. 

Brad 

There have been some recent changes at the Charity, haven’t there? Can you talk us through those? 

Helen  

Yes, in 2023 we undertook some one-to-one research with insurance people throughout the industry to gather their thoughts on the charity and understand if we needed to make any changes. 

The feedback told us our name was confusing people, so we made a slight change in February this year and became known as The Insurance Charity with the new strapline: Supporting insurance people when they need us most. 

We introduced a fresh new visual identity too and launched a new website to make it simpler for people to access the information they needed. 

Brad 

The charity has an important annual awareness campaign coming up in June. What are you asking people to do? 

Helen 

I’d like to encourage everyone to get involved, however they can, to help us spread the word and reach those who need our support. People can visit our website or social media channels to find out more. 

Until mid-May supporters can order free giveaways to distribute during the campaign. This year we are offering branded sweets and flyers. You can place your order here. 

We will be issuing a digital Supporter Toolkit nearer the time which will include lots of tools to help people get involved whether they are an individual or company. 

People can also follow us on social media if they’d like to keep up to date with the campaign, and our work more generally, and sign up for our newsletter at the bottom of our homepage. 

Finally, please remember to tell anyone who’s involved in the industry about their dedicated charity so that anyone who is struggling, now or in the future doesn’t miss out from the support that is available.  

www.theinsurancecharity.org.uk