The definition of consumer in vulnerable circumstances “means a consumer that is a natural person and whose individual circumstances make that consumer especially susceptible to harm, particularly where a regulated entity is not acting with the appropriate levels of care, and ‘vulnerable circumstances’ shall be construed accordingly”.

A vulnerable customer is someone who, because of their personal circumstances, may be more vulnerable to challenges, requiring Vhi to offer an enhanced and focused level of support. 

Vulnerability can occur at any time, it can be transient or permanent and many members can find themselves in a vulnerable position for a range of reasons some of which may be as follows:

• Change in personal circumstances; bereavement, divorce or separation, the breakdown of family relationships or supports.
• Issues with physical and mental health and wellbeing, including cognitive impairments, the diagnosis or onset of a serious or life-altering illness.
• Disability, which requires additional or alternative supports.
• Personal financial difficulties, including cost of living challenges.

At Vhi, we aim to make your contact with us as hassle-free as possible. In support of this, we are committed to:

Accessible Communication

• Maintaining the service provided to our blind or visually impaired customers by supplying some of our literature on audio cassette, CD, Braille or large font documents on request.
• Operating a Loop system for our customers with hearing difficulties in a number of our public offices.

Accessibility 

• Ensuring that access to our public offices is made as easy as practicable.
• Standards Compliance - All pages on this site were developed to reach conformance rating Double A with WCAG and comply with all priority 1 and 2 checkpoints of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines v 1.0.
• Design - The site uses Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) for layout and visual formatting (with rare exception for certain components of some pages). If your browser does not support CSS or your wish to turn it off then all pages are still easily readable and actionable. All fonts are scalable - most browsers provide a means to specify default base text-size.

If you’re a Vhi member and you or someone in your household is vulnerable** and if you wish to register yourself or them as a Vulnerable Customer, please log in to MyVhi to register.

You can nominate a carer or other third party to deal with your Policy on your behalf. 

If you would like to please contact us info@vhi.ie or call us on 056 4444444