Mental Health and Money: Guidance for supporting customers
Published on:
26 April 2023
The Money and Pensions Service has produced a new guide that shows creditors how to offer more support to customers living with a mental health problem. Living with a mental health problem can make it more difficult to interact with and manage money, including payments to financial services providers, public sector creditors and utility providers.
How the Mental Health and Money guide was created
‘Mental Health and Money’ was created after detailed consultation with experts in both financial wellbeing and mental health.
The guidance is supported by the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute, Mind, Rethink Mental Illness and Citizens Advice, along with Adferiad Recovery in Wales, MindWise in Northern Ireland and Scottish organisations Change Mental Health and Citizens Advice Scotland.
Why money matters in mental health
Money and mental health are strongly linked, with research from the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute showing one in five people (18%) living with a mental health problem are also in problem debt.
However, we also know that there is a lot of information out there about what organisations should do to best support their customers, and it may be difficult to know where to start.
What the guide offers
The guide outlines six ways in which creditors in financial services, utilities and the public sector can do more to support those who are struggling.
These include equipping staff to help, extra consideration when chasing payments and making it easier for people to get in touch when they need help.
Others include allowing affected customers to involve third parties in managing their account, more forbearance and proactively referring them to external support.
The guide also suggests how creditors can put the techniques into practice, lists resources they can use and reminds them of the relevant FCA duties that may require it.