Leia Ben Naceur, Research Community Officer, Money and Mental Health
Creating systems that work for the 5 million carers across the UK
8 June 2026
- Many carers in our Research Community help manage the finances of the people they care for, often without formal authority and with very little support from institutions
- Most find it hard. More than half have run into specific problems with banks or financial services when acting on someone else’s behalf
- The tasks themselves aren’t usually the problem. The problem is the systems carers have to battle through to carry them out: banks that won’t engage without the account holder present, power of attorney that’s accepted in one branch and rejected by the phone team, online services that simply weren’t built for third parties
- These aren’t just admin frustrations. They damage relationships, take a toll on mental health, and in some cases push carers into debt.
Think about everything that goes into managing your own money. The direct debits. The calls to companies when something goes wrong. The benefit applications. Now imagine doing all of that for someone else, often from a distance, without always having the formal authority to speak on their behalf, and alongside everything else going on in your own life.
That’s the reality for many unpaid carers in the UK. We’ve been hearing about it in detail from the carers in our Research Community.
A role that’s huge, varied and largely invisible
In a recent survey, we asked Community members about what they do to support the finances of the weekly person they care for. The list was long: paying bills, setting up direct debits, doing the food shop, withdrawing cash, monitoring bank accounts for signs of fraud, completing benefit applications, negotiating with debt collectors, acting as appointees for Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payments (PIP).
“Looking after the finances in the digital age for 5 people and 4 properties is an absolute nightmare. It’s more than a full time job.” Expert by experience
And yet almost all of this happens informally. Only 26% of Community members who help with someone’s finances hold any kind of formal authority, such as power of attorney. The rest are getting by on a patchwork of permission, trust and necessity, usually because the formal routes are too expensive, too complicated, or simply not accessible.
Banks are making a difficult job even harder
When we asked whether carers had run into difficulties dealing with banks or financial services on someone else’s behalf, 53% said yes.
What they described was consistent: banks that will only discuss an account if the account holder is on the line, which is impossible when that person is in a mental health crisis or lives hours away. Power of attorney documents accepted at one branch and rejected by the phone team. Online verification codes that some organisations simply refuse to accept. And the exhausting expectation that carers prove their authority from scratch every single time they call.
“I was constantly challenged by financial departments because they wouldn’t record my authority on my person’s accounts… to have to jump through the hoops of sending digital evidence every time I needed to contact them simply delays getting the problem solved.” Expert by experience
“Proving PoA (power of attorney) can be very difficult as not all organisations accept the online code to check. I cannot get certified copies of the PoA as I set it up without the help of a solicitor and no solicitor will provide certified copies if they did not create it in the first place.” Expert by experience
For carers supporting someone who lives far away, or who can’t easily travel, the expectation of physical co-presence doesn’t just make the job harder. It makes it impossible.
The stress carers experience isn’t just about the tasks, but about what happens when you try to get help
When we asked how financial oversight affected carers’ relationships with the people they care for, conflict and tension came up most often. But reading what people actually wrote, one thing was clear: in many cases, the tension wasn’t coming from the caring relationship itself. It was coming from institutional failure.
When a bank won’t engage. When paperwork goes in circles. When an urgent bill can’t be paid because a carer can’t prove their authority on that particular call. The frustration doesn’t disappear. It comes home. It spills into relationships. It feeds into the 87% of carers in our survey who said their caring role had negatively affected their mental health.
For some, the financial impact is direct too. Many carers described dipping into their own savings, or going into debt, to cover costs for the person they care for, with little or no financial support available to them in return.
What needs to change
None of this is inevitable. The problems carers face with financial institutions are largely the result of systems that weren’t designed with them in mind.
What carers consistently told us they need is simple: consistency. A single way to register their authority that every bank, utility company and government service recognises. The ability to manage accounts online or by phone without requiring the person they care for to present. Staff who understand why a carer is calling instead of the person themselves, and are empowered to help them.
A tell us once approach to power attorney was one of the most common suggestions we heard. Right now, every carer has to tell every organisation separately, and even then there’s no guarantee it will be accepted. This is something we’ve been hearing for a while, and in October 2025 we published a report If I Needed Someone outlining our findings.
“It would help carers if there was a central repository for PoAs that financial bodies and utility companies can access to verify that the carer is authorised to act on behalf of someone else. This would avoid a carer having to inform several bodies that they have financial PoA.” Expert by experience
We’re calling on banks and financial services to take this seriously. Carers are not a niche group. There are an estimated 5 million unpaid carers in the UK, and they are propping up a care system that would collapse without them. The least we can do is make it easier for them to care.
If you care for someone with experience of money and mental health problems, or experience them yourself, we’d love to hear from you. You can join our Research Community here.