IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Forced to share PINs, left open to fraud! Vulnerable people at risk of financial abuse due to lack of banking tools for sharing money management with friends and family

14 October 2025

One in five people with mental health problems has resorted to sharing their PIN code or bank details with another person to get help with managing money — leaving them at risk of fraud and financial abuse. That’s because they can’t access simple, safe, and legally protected ways to get support from a trusted person to manage their everyday finances.

This is the warning of new research published today by the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute — the charity founded and chaired by Martin Lewis (MoneySavingExpert, comment from him below) — which is calling for action from financial services firms, government and regulators to make it safer and easier for people to get support from a trusted person to manage their day-to-day finances. 

The new report highlights that four in ten people (42%) with mental health problems have wanted help with managing day-to-day finances from a trusted person, such as a friend or family member (1). That is because common symptoms of mental health problems such as reduced memory, increased impulsivity or low mood can make it extremely difficult to manage financial admin and bills, or to go out shopping for essentials.

Yet despite this demand, the report shows that financial services firms do not consistently offer appropriate tools for getting support from a trusted person to manage everyday finances in a safe and easy way. A market analysis study by Money and Mental Health of 18 leading current account providers (2) in the UK shows that provision of these tools is piecemeal across the sector:

The other main way that people can share financial decisions is through formal tools such as Lasting Power of Attorney (Continuing Power of Attorney in Scotland), which offers a more permanent enacting of help designed more for mental capacity issues than mental health problems. 

Money and Mental Health’s research suggests that many people with mental health problems struggle to use Power of Attorney. In an in-depth survey of 158 people with mental health problems, survey participants raised concerns about Power of Attorney being too complex and difficult to set up, giving too much control over to a trusted person and not offering the right flexibility for someone with a fluctuating condition (who may be perfectly able to manage their finances when well, but might struggle in a period of mental ill-health).

Vulnerable people left at risk of fraud

This lack of adequate tools for getting support from a trusted person to manage everyday finances is resulting in people with mental health problems resorting to risky workarounds to get support, such as sharing their pin or log-in details — which breach the terms and conditions of their bank account, and leaves them vulnerable to financial abuse.

Money and Mental Health’s analysis of nationally representative data shows that more than 1 in 5 people (22%) with mental health problems in the UK have shared their pin code or bank account details with another person (3). If reflected nationally, this amounts to 1.9m people with mental health problems resorting to unsafe practices for sharing money management. 

Participants in the research shared horror stories of suffering financial abuse after giving their pin or bank details to someone else to help them manage their money. One participant said: 

“I was mentally unwell. Had someone I thought I trusted try to help. Instead I was coerced into giving them £1000s of pounds thinking they were helping me”. 

Other participants raised concerns about losing their bank account as a result of breaching the terms of their contract, or getting their carer into trouble through unauthorised practices for sharing money management.

What needs to change

Money and Mental Health is calling for the government to ensure that current account providers consistently offer customers a standard package of tools that make it easier for people to share money management in a safe and legally protected way. At a minimum, this should include:

• Carers’ cards – which individuals can use to authorise a carer to make purchases on their behalf.
• Third party account notifications – enabling an individual to authorise a trusted person to receive alerts about their account.  
• Third party payment controls – enabling an individual to authorise a trusted person the option to block certain types of payment (e.g. gambling) or payments above or below certain thresholds.

To make this a reality, Money and Mental Health is calling on the government to coordinate a voluntary agreement among financial services to offer customers this package. This could be part of the upcoming Financial Inclusion Strategy, and could be modelled on the successful approach taken by the coalition government in 2014 to secure an agreement among current account providers to make basic bank accounts available to people who did not have one. 

Money and Mental Health is also urging the government to launch a review of the Power of Attorney system to consider how it could be changed to better meet the needs of people with mental health problems.

Martin Lewis, Founder and Chair of the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute, says:

“People want to be responsible for their own money. Yet some struggling with mental health issues know there are times they can’t be responsible… so the responsible thing for them to do at those times is to get a trusted family member or friend to help.

“Yet when they try, often the cogs of the financial system seize up. The tools needed just aren’t widely available. The only recourse, often at a desperate time, is to break the rules, leaving them forced to shed the cloak of normal financial protections – putting them at risk of losing money, financial abuse, and worried about being disenfranchised from access to financial services. The technology is available, we just haven’t seen it used enough to help those with mental health issues.

“That’s why we’re calling on the government and regulator to convince firms to do this in a voluntary way, as they did with basic bank accounts. If not, then there should be a push to make it a regulatory mandate. Our banking sector is too big to fail, so it’s too big to be allowed to fail the most vulnerable.

“We need tools so that people can share money management more easily and without putting themselves or their carer in harm’s way.”

Helen Undy, Chief Executive of the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute, says:

“For many people with mental health problems, getting the support of a loved one to manage money is the difference between keeping their head above water financially or falling into serious money problems. It is unacceptable that people have to put themselves at risk of harm to get that support because banks aren’t providing the right tools to do this safely and easily.

“That needs to change and the government’s upcoming Financial Inclusion Strategy is an ideal opportunity to tackle this issue. We want it to include a real commitment from government and banks to ensure that everyone who needs support with managing day-to-day finances can get that without having to trade-in their financial security. That will be essential in ensuring the Strategy delivers the government’s ambition to make the financial system fairer and more accessible for people in vulnerable circumstances.”

This independent research is sponsored by Nationwide Building Society, but Money and Mental Health retain full editorial control over it. The report aims to challenge the sector to collectively deliver accessible banking solutions for those who experience mental health problems. Alongside this research, Money and Mental Health is working with Nationwide to improve its support for customers in vulnerable circumstances.

Kathryn Townsend, Head of Customer Vulnerability at Nationwide Building Society, said:

“Understanding lived experience is essential if we want to build a society that works for everyone. The findings highlight the need for accessible and flexible tools that enable individuals to get the support they need safely. We hope that industry will take a cue from these recommendations to ensure that no one is left behind when it comes to managing their money, especially during times when they need help the most.”

ENDS

For media enquiries, please contact Alex Goodfellow, External Affairs Officer at Money and Mental Health, on 07754 446272 or [email protected] 

Notes to Editors

1. Money and Mental Health analysis of an online survey of 2,093 over-18s across the UK, carried out by Populus 12-13 June 2019, weighted to be nationally representative.
2. Money and Mental Health review of the websites of 18 banks and building societies.
3. Money and Mental Health analysis of the Financial Conduct Authority’’s Financial Lives 2022 survey, a nationally representative survey of 19,145 respondents.
4. The research represents the research and views solely of the authors and of the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute and does not represent the views or experiences of Nationwide.

About the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute

The Money and Mental Health Policy Institute is an independent charity set up by Martin Lewis, and committed to breaking the link between financial difficulty and mental health problems. We conduct research, develop practical policy solutions and work in partnership with both those providing services and those using them to find what really works. www.moneyandmentalhealth.org