General Election 2024: How the next government can make financial services fairer for people with mental health problems

Our ability to access and engage with financial services has a huge impact on our daily lives, from being able to reach out to the bank when you have a problem to buying travel insurance for a holiday. When things go smoothly, financial services can fit seamlessly into our lives, making daily tasks easier and providing us with peace of mind. But for too many people – including people with mental health problems – the system is inaccessible and unfair. 

Our research has consistently found that people with mental health problems face significant barriers to accessing and using financial services. For example, common symptoms of mental health problems like poor concentration and difficulties processing information can make comparing prices of financial products and reading the small print extremely difficult. These kinds of hurdles can result in people with mental health problems paying over the odds for key services – or being locked out of them altogether.

Poor outcomes for consumers with mental health problems are not inevitable. Too often, companies simply don’t know what barriers people are facing, meaning that products and services don’t match their customer’s needs. Ahead of this week’s election, we’ve published five steps the next government can take to boost financial inclusion for people with mental health problems, and improve outcomes for consumers across the essential services sector. 

To make financial servicers fairer for people with mental health problems, we want the next government to:

Insurance gives us peace of mind when it comes to travel, our belongings and our income. But people with mental health problems can face much higher premiums and, in some cases, cannot access insurance at all. Through a mystery shopping exercise, we found people with conditions like bipolar disorder were frequently turned down for travel insurance or were charged up to 27 times more than a customer without a mental health problem. 

Firms are allowed to charge more where they face higher risk, but this must be based on accurate and up to date data. These costs seem disproportionate,  and the lack of transparency in how these decisions are made and what data is used contributes to low levels of trust in the industry. 

To restore that trust and boost financial inclusion, the next government should launch a review of the data and models firms use in pricing to ensure customers with mental health problems are getting a fair deal.

Financial services firms tailor their services for customers with additional needs all the time, providing letters in braille or Easy Read versions. But for those of us with mental health problems, telling an essential services firm about our condition or needs can be daunting. Only 14% of people with mental health problems have ever told their financial service provider about their condition and needs. 

A tell us once system would remove the fear, uncertainty and bureaucracy from this process. It would mean a customer only has to share their needs once, with that information then being shared between other organisations of the customer’s choosing. The next government should commit to delivering this powerful tool in partnership with people with first-hand experience of these issues. 

This would ensure those of us with mental health problems are more reliably and effectively supported by firms in financial services and in other essential markets like energy, water and telecoms.

By levelling the playing field for consumers with mental health problems, the next government has an opportunity to boost financial inclusion and minimise the stress and uncertainty that people experience when dealing with financial services. That will make a huge difference to individuals, as well as improving outcomes for businesses by helping them better understand and anticipate their customers’ needs.