

Bronwen Dalley Smith, External Affairs Manager, Money and Mental Health
Good progress on the Mental Health Bill
31 January 2025
- Good news: we’ve secured a number of commitments from the government to ensure that people getting support for their mental health also get asked about their finances too.
- This came in response to work we’ve been doing with Peers in the House of Lords, to call for three changes to the Mental Health Bill.
- These amendments would see this new legislation better address the link between money and mental health.
- So far two amendments have been discussed in Parliament. The government agreed to make changes which will ensure that people’s financial needs are a key consideration in the practice and regulation related to the Bill.
- This is a big step forward for holistic care and ensuring that people receiving care for their mental health don’t experience financial harm.
Along with many sector friends, we’ve been keenly following the Mental Health Bill as it passes through the House of Lords. The Bill – weighty in both length and importance – will bring long-awaited reforms to the Mental Health Act 1983. This is the vital piece of legislation that determines the assessment, care and treatment of those of us with mental health problems.
Updates to this 40-year-old legislation are long overdue. We set out the major changes we want to see in our policy paper, Reforming the Mental Health Act. This new Mental Health Bill shows promising signs of progress, with a concerted focus on enhancing choice, autonomy and person-centered care.
But it’s missing something big.
In its current form, the Mental Health Bill fails to systematically address the link between mental health problems and financial difficulty.
The missing link
This represents a crucial missed opportunity to provide people with holistic support. Our research has evidenced time and time again that one problem can feed off the other, and failing to address the vicious link can ultimately put people’s recovery at risk.
This is particularly critical for people experiencing a mental health crisis. During a period of acute poor mental health, when a person is perhaps too unwell to keep themselves safe, keeping on top of their finances is understandably not a reasonable expectation. But, the outside world doesn’t pause. Letters pile up. Fees mount. Collections activity escalates.
We’ve heard countless powerful accounts from members of our Research Community illustrating this.
“If you’ve got any spare energy you get a drink, go to the toilet, climb up in bed trying to sleep. So, financial stuff just doesn’t come into it. I’ve come out of a two-year depression in the past and checked my post box and there’s two years’ worth of post stuffed inside.” Expert by experience
“I was never asked if there was anyone who was opening mail and keeping on top of my day-to-day living stuff… It’s always the same. I go in for treatment and come out to find my financial world is in a bigger mess than when I went in. The resultant terror, shame and guilt undoes all the work of the treatment and I am back in crisis again.” Expert by experience
What we’ve been calling for
We highlighted three opportunities within the Bill to tackle this omission. With the help of a number of Peers we submitted three amendments:
1. Care and Treatment plans – the documents developed collaboratively between healthcare professionals and patients to outline treatment and support – should include a proactive prompt about people’s financial needs, so that they can be signposted to help if needed.
2. Advance Choice Documents – the preventative documents people can use to decide their care in the event they experience a mental health crisis – should include explicit questions about a person’s finances.
3. Mental Health Crisis Breathing Space – the debt respite scheme that can protect people from piling fees, charges and enforcement action – should be automatically offered to those detained under longer term sections of the Mental Health Act.
Opening up a conversation about money at such critical moments could be transformative for those of us whose money can go unmanaged when unwell.
Progress so far
As often happens with parliamentary business, not all debates have run to time. So at the time of writing only two out of the three amendments have been discussed. But there’s good news.
The government is listening and has agreed in principle with the changes we’ve proposed. While the text of the Bill may not change, the Minister’s responses show that our recommendations on Care and Treatment Plans and Advance Choice Documents will be woven into official guidance, regulations or codes of practice – this is a big step forward.
We’re very grateful to Lord Davies of Brixton – with the support of Baroness Tyler of Enfield and Baroness Neuberger – for leading the charge for us in the Lords, and for sharing the experiences of our Research Community in Parliament too.
You can catch up on Lord Davies’ speeches and the Minister for Mental Health Baroness Merron’s responses below.
On Care and Treatment Plans:
And on Advance Choice Documents:
With bated breath…
There’s still lots to be done to ensure that people receiving care for their mental health don’t experience financial harm, and we’ll see what happens when our third amendment is debated on 24 February. But this progress feels promising.
To stay up to date with what happens next, follow us on LinkedIn and sign up to our Professional Network. If you’d like to share your experiences of mental health problems with us, take a look at our Research Community. We’d love to hear your thoughts and ideas on the change that’s needed.