This week is National Inclusion Week 2025, a UK-wide campaign to celebrate and advance inclusion. At Paylink, it’s not something we highlight once a year – it’s something we build into Embark, our digital income and expenditure (I&E) platform. Inclusion matters deeply when people are completing affordability assessments. Every form, every interaction, and every outcome must be accessible, fair, and supportive. The theme of this year’s Inclusion Week, #NowIsTheTime, is a reminder that inclusion is not about intention alone, it’s about acting today to make financial tools work for everyone.

 

Why Inclusion Matters

The FCA’s Financial Lives Survey 2024 shows just how many people face challenges when engaging with financial services. More than two million adults in the UK have specific accessibility requirements. Around 1.2 million people are digitally excluded, meaning they rarely use the internet or lack the skills to use it confidently.

The survey also makes clear that digital exclusion and financial exclusion are closely linked, with the challenges of one often reinforcing the other. Adults with vulnerabilities, such as long-term health conditions or low financial capabilities, are more likely to be digitally excluded. On top of this, nearly one in five adults reports low confidence with numbers, making financial forms and calculations even harder to manage.

Without inclusive digital I&E tools, the people who most need support risk being excluded from it.

 

Looking Back: Our Test-Driven Start

In 2023, we published a blog called Our test-driven journey to an inclusive application.

That blog explained how we were taking a test-driven approach to make Embark more inclusive and welcoming.

It was an early step in a longer journey – a recognition that inclusion needed to be embedded in the way we design and improve our platform. Two years on, we can reflect on how that early focus has shaped what Embark delivers today.

 

Inclusion in Practice

Two years later, we can show how inclusion has been embedded directly into Embark through the UserWay Accessibility Tool. This ensures Embark supports recognised WCAG 2.1 and 2.2 standards and provides features such as screen reader compatibility, language translation, adjustable layouts, and personalised accessibility profiles.

These improvements provide real benefits: customers with visible and invisible disabilities, or with language and literacy barriers, gain confidence to complete digital financial journeys successfully and independently.

Inclusion also applies to agents. They are the ones guiding customers through sensitive conversations about money, and inclusive tools make their work easier too. When Embark is clearer and adaptable, agents can focus less on technical challenges and more on meaningful support.

This is what inclusion looks like in practice: accessibility built into the platform itself, benefitting everyone who uses it.

 

Beyond Compliance

Standards like WCAG 2.1 and 2.2 provide an essential baseline, but inclusion should go further than compliance.

For customers, inclusive digital financial tools mean fewer barriers, more confidence, and fairer outcomes. For organisations, they lead to stronger engagement, fewer dropouts, and greater trust. And for agents, they mean working with a platform that makes it easier to provide the right support at the right time.

 

Now is the Time

National Inclusion Week is a chance to reflect – but more importantly, to act.

Back in 2023, we shared a test-driven approach to inclusion. Today, we can show how that work has led to tangible outcomes in Embark, with accessibility now embedded through the UserWay Accessibility Tool.

There is more to do, but the direction is clear: inclusion is not a side project. It is the standard we continue to design for every day.

 

Closing Reflection

As we mark National Inclusion Week 2025, we invite our peers across financial services, energy and utilities, and housing to reflect on the same question we ask ourselves:

How can inclusive design in income and expenditure tools create better outcomes for the people who rely on them most?

Because when it comes to inclusion, now is the time.

 

Want to Learn More?

If you would like to learn more about how our Embark tool can help your organisation deliver more a inclusive I&E journeys then please contact us here www.paylinksolutions.co.uk/schedule-demo