
Helen Undy, Chief Executive, Money and Mental Health
2024: Tough mudder, but for policy influencing
20 December 2024
- Money and Mental Health’s Chief Executive Helen Undy reflects on the year as it comes to a close.
- This year we had both a general election and a change of government – which for Money and Mental Health (and the charity sector more broadly) has meant working hard to make the most of opportunities to influence new ministers, MPs and get our priorities on the new government’s agenda.
- Helen reflects on and shares some of Money and Mental Health’s biggest successes of 2024.
It’s been a bumper year for anyone working in policy – a change of government always brings new opportunities and challenges, and it certainly feels like more than twelve months ago that we were speculating on when the election might be called. When I meet colleagues from across the charity sector there’s one very consistent message that I’m hearing – we’re tired.
An election year can feel a bit navigating an assault course: charities double their efforts to come up with the best and most impactful and persuasive policy ideas, throw all their plans in the air and scrabble to replan when an election is called, bend over backwards to make meetings with new ministers, meet as many new backbenchers as is humanly possible, put on a show at party conferences, be across every one of the many (many) new strategies coming out of government – and all while still running their usual day-to-day services, often in the context of constrained funding. It’s no wonder we’re all tired.
But I couldn’t be more proud to work in a sector that is so committed to the change we’re here to create. Without exception, our team, and those in all the charities we work with, have given all they have to rise to the challenge this year.
A year of collaboration
For me, one of the real highlights is that 2024 has been a year of collaboration. With mental health charities, debt advice providers, banks, regulators, and now as part of the Financial Inclusion Committee with the government. We worked hard to coordinate our election asks, ensuring the new government hears a consistent and clear message from the mental health sector. We supported each other to build a movement on issues from council tax collection to financial inclusion and suicide prevention. And it feels like some of the hard work from the year is starting to pay off – but that doesn’t mean we aren’t all running on fumes as we stagger into Christmas.
Five gold wins
So below is a little rundown of just five of our many highlights of the year, to remind us of what it’s all for. Whether you’re celebrating Christmas or not, I hope that you get a moment to rest and reflect over the coming weeks – I’m certainly hoping to – so that we can go into 2025 with renewed energy to make the most of the opportunities it brings.
And don’t forget, if you work in a firm with some end-of-year budget to spend, or you just like to make a donation at Christmas – you can always give to support our work next year.
1. The new Mental Health Bill entered Parliament. For us, a highlight is that this will give people a legal right to an Advance Choice Document (ACD). These documents enable people to state their personal preferences for care and treatment during a mental health crisis, including how to manage their finances. We’ll be working to influence the Bill next year to get more help to people in periods of crisis.
2. The government announced that mental health will be a cross-cutting theme for its new Financial Inclusion Committee. One of our key aims in our pre-election campaigning was to ensure the government prioritised mental health in its financial inclusion strategy, so this is brilliant news. I’m really looking forward to sitting on the Committee, and hopeful that we can bring about practical change on issues like access to credit and insurance.
3. Regulators covering financial services, water, telecoms and energy issued a joint statement outlining their expectations that firms should review the volume of messages they send people about missed payments. They also called on firms to make debt communications more supportive and helpful. This statement was prompted by our campaigning to make debt collection less intimidating and aggressive, and we know these kinds of messages from the regulators have a huge direct impact on how firms behave.
4. The government committed to giving all workers access to Statutory Sick Pay from day one of being unwell, including those on low incomes who were previously excluded. This is something we have called for in a number of reports and we’re pleased that the government has acted.
5. Through our Mental Health Accessible programme we’ve helped major firms like Nationwide, Barclays and Lloyds Banking Group to make their services more accessible for people living with mental health problems. This has included firms offering more channels to contact specialist teams, providing front line staff with training to better support people with mental health problems, and improving tools such as gambling blocks to help people manage their finances.
OK, I said I’d keep it to five, but I’m also delighted that we saw action from the government’s consumer watchdog, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), to clamp down on online pressure selling tactics from firms. We met with the CMA several times to discuss the need for action on pushy online selling tactics, which can particularly affect people with mental health problems.
Onwards to 2025
Thank you for all your support for our work this year. We’re looking forward to getting stuck into 2025 – and to all the new collaborations and opportunities it will bring.