Recognising vulnerable customers on collection calls

Some of the people your collections team calls are not just behind on payments. They may be ill, grieving, out of work or struggling to follow what is being said. How an agent responds matters for the customer, the case and your legal obligations. This article covers what vulnerability can sound like on a call, which rules apply, and how to check that agents handle it well.

What vulnerability can sound like

Vulnerability is rarely announced. It usually comes out in passing, often as the reason a payment was missed. Common signs include:

• Health. The customer mentions a hospital stay, a long-term condition, mental health problems or treatment that affects their ability to work.
• Bereavement. A partner or family member has died, or the customer is dealing with the estate of someone who has.
• Job loss or reduced income. Redundancy, a business that has closed, reduced hours or a benefit that has stopped.
• Wider financial difficulty. Several debts at once, or choosing between bills and essentials.
• Language barriers. The customer asks the agent to repeat things, answers questions that weren't asked, or asks whether someone else can speak for them.
• Signs of not understanding. Confusion about who is calling or why, agreeing to everything without engaging, or being unable to repeat back what was agreed.

These are signals to slow down, check understanding and consider a different arrangement.

The rules that apply

Consumer Credit Directive: forbearance and debt advice

The revised Consumer Credit Directive (EU) 2023/2225 introduces two provisions aimed directly at consumers in financial difficulty. Member States had to transpose it by 20 November 2025, and under Article 48(1) the national rules apply from 20 November 2026.

• Article 35 (arrears and forbearance). Member States must require creditors to exercise, where appropriate, reasonable forbearance before enforcement proceedings are initiated, taking into account the consumer's circumstances. Forbearance can include refinancing or changing the terms of the agreement, such as extending the term, reducing the interest rate, a payment holiday or partial repayment.
• Article 36 (debt advisory services). Member States must ensure independent debt advisory services are available. Creditors must have procedures to detect consumers in financial difficulties early, and must refer them to easily accessible debt advice.

These duties fall on creditors under consumer credit agreements. If you collect on behalf of creditors, expect them to want evidence that your calls support these obligations: that difficulties are spotted, options are offered and customers are pointed to help.

Unfair Commercial Practices Directive: exploiting misfortune

The Unfair Commercial Practices Directive 2005/29/EC applies before, during and after a commercial transaction (Article 3(1)), which includes collecting payment. Article 8 treats a practice as aggressive when harassment, coercion or undue influence significantly impairs the consumer's freedom of choice. Article 9(c) lists, as a factor in that assessment, the exploitation by the trader of any specific misfortune or circumstance of such gravity as to impair the consumer's judgement, of which the trader is aware.

In practice: once a customer has told you about a serious illness or a death in the family, using that moment to push for an immediate payment is the kind of conduct Article 9(c) describes.

GDPR: health information on a recording

When a customer mentions a diagnosis or treatment, the recording and transcript now contain data concerning health, a special category of personal data under Article 9 GDPR. Processing it is prohibited unless one of the exceptions in Article 9(2) applies.

You cannot stop customers mentioning their health, but you can control what happens next:

• Record only what you need in case notes. "Customer reports reduced income, payment plan agreed" is usually enough; a diagnosis rarely is.
• Limit who can listen to recordings and read transcripts.
• Decide how long recordings are kept. Our article on how long to keep call recordings covers this in more detail.

Talk to your data protection officer about which Article 9(2) exception, if any, you rely on when health information is kept in a case file.

Dutch context: the Wki

Dutch collection agencies also work under the Wet kwaliteit incassodienstverlening. The Besluit kwaliteit incassodienstverlening requires staff to have knowledge of dealing with people (Article 2.1), and makes the agency responsible for ensuring staff know what is proper according to social norms, with meetings on those norms at least twice a year (Article 2.3). Article 4.1 requires a transparent, unambiguous, recognisable and correct approach to the debtor, and clear, complete and correct information. See our guide to the Wki and collections calls for the full set of requirements.

What agents should do

1. Notice and acknowledge. If the customer mentions illness, a death or job loss, acknowledge it before returning to the debt.
2. Check understanding. Ask the customer to say in their own words what happens next. Offer to send the details in writing.
3. Ask about affordability. Ask what the customer can realistically pay rather than proposing the full amount.
4. Offer options. A payment plan, a short pause or a referral to debt advice, according to your client's and your own policies.
5. No pressure. No deadlines that don't exist, no threats of steps you cannot take, and no pushing for payment on the same call where the customer is clearly distressed.
6. Escalate. Follow your procedure for passing the case to a specialist or supervisor, and note the reason in neutral terms.
7. Confirm what was agreed. Summarise the amount, date and next contact before ending the call.

Example checks

These can be written as yes/no questions about what was said on the call. Several only apply when the situation arises, so expect many calls to leave them unanswered.

For more on writing checks that give clear answers, see building a call QA scorecard with yes/no checks.

How to review

Vulnerability cases are a small share of calls, which is exactly why sampling misses them. A few practices help:

• Review the hardship calls, not a random sample. Focus on calls where the hardship checks were actually answered, so you are looking at calls where the situation came up.
• Read the evidence, then listen. A quote shows what the customer said and how the agent responded. Listen to the audio when the quote alone leaves doubt.
• Coach on patterns. The same check failing across a team suggests a gap in training or scripts.
• Feed it into your norms meetings. Real, anonymised examples make the Wki social norms discussion concrete.

Feedback should describe the agent's behaviour, not the customer's condition.

How VOIX helps

VOIX records and transcribes every collections call and answers your checks, such as whether a payment plan was offered or whether hardship was acknowledged, with evidence from the call behind every answer. Hardship checks run on the calls where the situation comes up, so reviewers see the calls that matter. VOIX does not analyse emotion or tone from audio, and the short list of facts it keeps per contact never includes feelings or sensitive data such as health information. Access to calls follows roles and team scopes, and data is hosted in the EU. See how this works for collections teams and in checks and lenses.

This article is general information, not legal advice. Check the rules that apply to your organisation with your legal adviser or data protection officer.

New to a term? See the glossary.

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