How to disrupt the long-term cycle of money and mental health problems

Our new research shows an alarming 800,000 people in the UK are stuck in a long-term cycle of money and mental health problems. This is worrying news. But the important takeaway is that long-term experiences of money and mental health problems aren’t inevitable. If people receive timely and effective support, we can break the cycle between the two, stopping difficulties from becoming entrenched.

However, currently, not everyone has access to such support. With a further 3.4 million people in the UK at risk of falling into a long-term cycle of money and mental health problems, the stakes for breaking the cycle could not be higher. The government, regulators, cross-sector organisations and services must take critical steps to ensure that everyone can access effective help.

Across the country, there are many interventions that aim to prevent people’s poor mental or financial health from escalating. But all too often, these only focus on one aspect of the financial and mental health cycle. This siloed approach fails to address the dual nature of the challenges that many people are facing, which can prevent timely recovery. Our overarching ask to the government, regulators and those delivering services, is to approach preventing long-term money and mental health problems in a joined-up way.

From the government, we are calling for the introduction of a cross-government taskforce committed to preventing and breaking the long-term cycle of money and mental health problems. Requiring government departments to unite to stop persistent money and mental health problems would better address the often interconnected reality of these challenges.

We also have a further two key asks for the government, regulators of essential services, and those delivering services – including mental health services, essential services such as banks or energy companies, and money advice services:

• Improve data sharing:

Until the barriers to more seamless data sharing between services are removed, joint working can be particularly challenging and less seamless for the customer. That is why we’d like the government and regulators of essential services to build data-sharing infrastructure, that would enable services to deliver more joined-up money and mental health support.

For example, we’d like to see the Department for Work and Pensions more routinely share benefit entitlement data with essential services firms, so these firms know which customers they should routinely offer applicable social tariffs to.

• Go further than just signposting:

As it stands, services often just signpost to each other, such as financial service providers sharing information to debt advice or mental health support. Given the difficulties that many people with mental health problems face, this can be particularly ineffective and rarely results in the take-up of that additional support.

That is why we’d like to see the government and regulators of essential services mandate that firms work in partnership with organisations that can directly support customers’ financial health. This would ensure that banks refer, instead of signpost, a customer who is struggling with their mental and financial health to debt advice, for example. We’d then like to see that debt advice provider proactively reach out to that customer for support.

When services only address one half of the money and mental health cycle, people’s recovery from these interconnected challenges can be hindered. Taking the above steps would facilitate a more joined-up and holistic approach to tackling money and mental health problems.

Adequate funding and resources must be in place for services to effectively refer to each other and provide more joined-up support. As it stands, mental health and debt advice services routinely struggle to keep up with demand, and people are often left waiting for weeks before they get any support.

We therefore have a number of recommendations that would address this and help:

• Reduce mental health waiting times. There has been welcome recognition from the Department for Health and Social Care and NHS England that wait times for mental health services need to be reduced. It’s important, however, that the proposed action adequately meets the scale of the demand.
• Provide debt advice services with sustainable funding. This would enable services to effectively meet the rise in increasingly complex cases they are seeing. We know that many of those seeking help with their money will be experiencing mental health problems – again, augmenting the need for joined-up support.

Many people are struggling to get effective support for their mental and financial health, and the increased cost of living continues to grip the country. The stakes for taking effective action to break the long-term cycle of money and mental health problems, therefore, could not be higher.

Our report provides essential reading for the government, commissioners of services, regulators and essential service providers, who all have a role to play in breaking this long-term cycle. Each of these actors should take a wide range of measures to protect the 3.4 million people at risk of long-term money and mental health issues, and help the 800,000 individuals break out of this cycle.

You can read our new report, Always on your mind, here. If you work in one of the sectors mentioned above and want to hear more about how you can help to break the link between money and mental health, please reach out to us at [email protected] – and join our Professional Network here to stay up to date with our work