One year on from the election - has anything improved for money and mental health?

It’s hard to believe it’s not much over a year since Rishi Sunak stood in the pouring rain without an umbrella, while nearby speakers blared ‘things can only get better’ as he called the general election.

One year on, the weather has certainly improved. But has anything else?

Here’s our run down on the progress we’ve seen against the five big asks we made of the new Government.

Progress: 🟢

We want to see everyone using mental health services asked about their finances, and for the Mental Health Crisis Breathing Space scheme to have increased take up – including being automatically offered to anyone detained in a psychiatric hospital on a longer term basis. So far, progress has actually been really great. Here’s what we’ve achieved:

1. We supported Baron Bryn Davies to table amendments to the Mental Health Bill, which would mean that everyone detained on longer term sections is offered access to the Breathing Space scheme. The Minister agreed with the aim of the amendments, and confirmed that the government would act to include this in the Code of Practice which accompanies the Bill, making sure that this happens. A huge success.
2. The Government’s new 10 Year Health Plan for England includes a commitment to introducing new Neighbourhood Health Centres, which would (among other things) co-locate mental health services and debt advice. This is the biggest step forward we’ve seen in the integration of money and mental health services, and we’re excited to support its implementation to make sure it reaches as many people as possible.

Progress: 🟢

Here we were calling for two big things; independent regulation of the bailiffs, and a limit on how frequently consumer creditors can contact people about their debts. So far:

1. The government has agreed that an independent regulator is needed for the bailiff industry, and launched a consultation on the details. This has been a campaign driven by many charities working together, and we’re delighted to secure a commitment for change.
2. While we’ve not seen any significant improvements in collection of consumer credit debts, after the election we launched a campaign informed by new research, calling for improvements to council tax collection – and we’ve had a big campaign win there. The Government is consulting on how to make council tax collection fairer, including increasing the time people have to pay and reviewing the unfair charges. Definite progress!

Progress: 🟡

Our two big asks here were for a specialist work coach in every Jobcentre, and for people to have a ‘right to try’ work without having to start their benefits claim again if it doesn’t work out. 

We’ve not seen much progress on the first, although the government has committed to new employment support, including ensuring that Jobcentres offer more personalised service, and expanding access to Individual Placement and Support (which offers specialist mental health support for people experiencing severe mental illness). 

But we’re delighted that the government has agreed that the ‘right to try’ is a great way to de-risk trying to return to work, and committed to introducing it. That’s a big step in the right direction.

Progress: 🟡

PIP is a benefit that many people rely on to manage the additional costs of living with a disability, and earlier this year the government tried to significantly change the eligibility criteria, threatening to leave 800,000 people without PIP, disproportionately affecting people with mental health problems. 

We published new research highlighting the impact of the proposed changes on people with mental health problems, and ran a concerted campaign of engagement with Parliamentarians and in the media. The third sector also mobilised en masse against the changes, and together we helped to persuade MPs to so vocally oppose the cuts that the government made a u-turn at the very last minute.

The threat to PIP has not gone away, it’s been postponed until after the government has undertaken a review of assessments and consulted with disabled people. But we’ve shown that there is no support for the reforms as they were proposed, and we’ll continue to fight on the issue.

We also called for changes to make it easier to nominate someone to help you manage your Universal Credit account, but we’ve seen no significant progress on that issue.

Progress: 🟡

There are many changes that we’d like to see to improve financial services for people with mental health problems – but here we focused on action to make insurance underwriting fair for people with mental health problems, and changes to make it easier to disclose mental health conditions once, with that data shared in a responsible way. 

After the election the government announced that mental health would be a central theme of its upcoming Financial Inclusion Strategy – giving us hope that some progress could be made in financial services – including travel insurance. While I’ve been fortunate to sit on the government committee helping to shape the strategy, we’re yet to see what’s in it – so we’re keeping our fingers crossed for progress on this one.

Overall, I’d say this is really encouraging progress. Let’s see where we get to another year from now.

You can stay up to date with the progress on our policy recommendations by signing up to our Professional Network newsletter.