Financial wellbeing in health and social care

Financial worries can make existing health problems worse or cause new ones, and the people you work with may need support on both health and money issues. We can help your health and care organisation to embed financial wellbeing as part of a holistic service.

What is financial wellbeing?
How money worries can affect health
MoneyHelper support
Mental Health Crisis Breathing Space: respite for people in debt
Our work with health services
Free tools and resources
Learning and development opportunities

What is financial wellbeing?

Financial wellbeing is about feeling secure and in control. It is about making the most of your money day to day, dealing with the unexpected, and being on track for a healthy financial future. In short: financially resilient, confident and empowered.

Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) is your partner when it comes to improving the financial wellbeing of the people you support.

Money and Pensions Service: Financial wellbeing stories in healthcare

Narrator: “Across the UK healthcare providers are building financial wellbeing for their colleagues, patients and communities. Together we've started something.”

Kerry, Mental Health, North Wales: “Financial wellbeing would be that finances aren't the first or the last thing that you think of each month, that you have everything that you need, but it gives you time to focus on the things that you really enjoy doing. There's a very strong link between financial wellbeing and mental wellbeing.

We find that most people come into I CAN in crisis and often people aren't aware of the origins of their crisis when they come in. So by putting them together with a volunteer who has lived experience, we find that many times part of that crisis is a financial concern and with that we put them in contact or signpost them to financial experts.

We offer people time. Time is the key component. We offer them a space which is safe, the time to express themselves, the time just to be.”

Chris, Third Sector, Derry: “As an organisation we see over 1000 men per year. We look at their mental health, and also their physical health, and also their financial wellbeing as well.

Men isolate when they have a problem, they don't come forward. They think they can deal with it themselves and sometimes they grind themselves down. We exist to build people up and give them the knowledge, the help, the understanding and the confidence as they move forward in their lives.

Resilience is really important because then when you build yourself up, you have the tools to build up others and build up within your society, community and within your family.”

Keith, Service User, Derry: “There's always somebody there and that's why the organisation's there. If anybody needs them, they're there for them. And I would tell everybody, don’t be scared, go and see them because it doesn't matter how well or how good they are, everybody needs help.”

Colette, Mental Health, North Wales: “Everybody is advertising gambling, go on the slot machines, you know, make a bet here, make a bet there, and although people say gamble responsibly, it's just so easy to say, oh just another fiver.

Gambling can impact your home life. You're ignoring your family, you're getting evicted because you've not paid your rent... it can lead to serious mental health problems because you're worrying about what you're going to do and how you're going to pay your bills.

If there's somebody out there with financial worries, find your local service. There are services and hubs available in your local area. Find them, go and have a chat. If you don't know what to do, go and see them. Stop worrying about it, go and see them and ask for the help. With I CAN if it's ten minutes, two hours, we're there for you. If you need further follow-up and phone calls, we can do that as well. If you need to come back and see us for another two hours, we'll do that for you as well. If you don't want to talk, you don't have to, but obviously the more you talk the better you feel.

For me, seeing somebody work through addiction, they'll come to us they're terrified and to see them in six months, 12 months’ time, a totally different person to see. That is worthwhile, it really is.”

Narrator: “It's all about feeling secure, confident and empowered with your money. Organisations like yours are making a big difference to financial wellbeing.”

Thank you to:

Kerry, I CAN, North Wales

Chris, MAN-NI, Derry

Keith, Service User, Derry

Colette, I CAN, North Wales

How money worries can affect health

Money and mental health

Mental health problems can affect a person’s ability to process information and solve problems, deplete energy and increase impulsive behaviour.

Research from the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute shows that:

almost one in five people (18%) living with a mental health problem are also in problem debt
72% of respondents said that their mental health problems had made their financial situation worse
86% of respondents said that their financial situation had made their mental health problems worse.

It's essential that people with mental health problems can access financial wellbeing support that works for them. That’s why we made mental health a cross-cutting theme of the UK Strategy for Financial Wellbeing.

Money and physical health

Struggling financially can cause stress and insecurity that may prevent people from making healthy choices, such as eating well or exercising. It can also affect their environment, such as not being able to heat your home which can impact respiratory conditions.

Living with a health condition can affect people’s ability to work, save and pay into a pension. All of these can increase the risk of reliance on high-cost credit or falling into debt.

MoneyHelper support

Through MoneyHelperOpens in a new window we offer money guidance services via a range of channels. These services can help people with different abilities, levels of vulnerability and preferences to access support that is right for them.

We offer guidance for people who are experiencing significant and often stressful changes in their money situation, including guides about:

This free and impartial money guidance can be accessed on the phone, WhatsApp and through digital channels, as well as through guides in Braille, large print and audio formats. Pensions guidance can also be accessed in face-to-face appointments.

Mental Health Crisis Breathing Space: respite for people in debt

Breathing Space is a government debt respite scheme which provides protections for people living in England and Wales who are in debt. This includes pausing enforcement action and contact from creditors, and freezing interest and charges on their debts.

While most eligible consumers will access Breathing Space through debt advice services, there is a specific pathway for those receiving mental health crisis care treatment. In this route, debt advisers enter individuals into Breathing Space after receiving evidence that they are receiving crisis care from an Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP).

The mental health access mechanism means vulnerable people who aren’t able to seek debt advice will still receive protection. MaPS hosts a single point of entry for the mental health access mechanism, making it easier for mental health practitioners to send referrals through to a dedicated debt advice provider.

Learn more about applying for Mental Health Crisis Breathing Space.

Our work with health services

We work closely with all four health and care system sin the UK to identify where financial wellbeing support can be integrated into services where it can best support service user needs.

We do this in line with the range of 'personalised' or 'whole-person' care agendas being developed and rolled out by health and care providers.

Support in your area

Whether your organisation is starting on the journey of boosting services users' financial wellbeing, or is actively researching the links between financial and mental wellbeing, we can support you.

We offer dedicated partnership managers based in your location, with managers in Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and regions across England.

Free tools and resources

Mental health and money toolkit

We worked in partnership with Mental Health UK and National Academy for Social Prescribing (NASP) to produce a guide to support people in managing both mental health and money difficulties.

You can download the Mental Health and Money ToolkitOpens in a new window, available to all practitioners in the UK.

If your organisation would like physical copies (minimum order of 20) of the toolkit for staff to give to the people they support, email [email protected]

Money in Mind – money and mental health questions and signposting tool

Developed in partnership with the NHS, the Money in Mind tool sets out a range of questions a mental health professional can ask to explore any issues a service user might be experiencing about money.

Depending on the nature of those issues, there is also then a range of national services, tools and resources that can be shared.

Money in Mind is a tool for mental health professionals across the public, private and voluntary sector, in both health and social care.

Access the Money in Mind toolkits for each nation.

We worked with the National Academy for Social Prescribing (NASP) to produce a guide for clinical directors within primary care networks across England.

The guide focuses on how they can utilise Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme funding to employ link workers, who can provide money guidance or social welfare legal advice. The guide covers why this is important and offers options you can consider, as well as key areas to think about.

View the guide How to include money guidance or social welfare legal advice within your social prescribing offerOpens in a new window

Learning and development opportunities

Money Guiders

If you ever have money conversations with your customers, our free Money Guiders programme will help you to help others.

This self-development programme helps organisations or individuals to confidently talk about money with their customers and give safe, effective guidance.

The Money Guiders programme is for anyone who provides any type of non-regulated money guidance to adults of all ages. This includes (but is not limited to):

social prescribing link workers
health visitors
home care workers
mental health support workers.

Money Guiders is based in all four nations of the UK. Learn more about Money Guiders.

All Our Health

We worked with the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities to create a bite-sized eLearning module on financial wellbeing. This forms part of the All Our Health learning series and is available to all health and care professionals across England.

Access the learning for freeOpens in a new window on the All Our Health learning site.