Financial wellbeing in health and social care

Struggling financially can mean making choices that impact on your physical health. Not being able to heat your home can impact on respiratory conditions. Not being able to buy nutritious food can result in malnutrition or obesity and associated health complications.

Living with a health condition can impact on your ability to work, save and pay into a pension; all of these can increase the risk of reliance on high-cost credit or falling into debt.

Research from the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute showing one in five people (18%) living with a mental health problem are also in problem debt.

Money and mental health problems can be intricately linked to individual and population health outcomes. Mental health problems can affect a person’s ability to process information and solve problems, deplete energy and increase impulsive behaviour.

It is essential that people with mental health problems are able to access financial wellbeing support that works for them.

We have made mental health a cross-cutting theme of the UK Strategy for Financial Wellbeing because it is essential that people with mental health problems are able to access financial wellbeing support.

Financial wellbeing is about feeling secure and in control. It is about making the most of your money day to day, dealing with the unexpected, and being on track for a healthy financial future. In short: financially resilient, confident and empowered.

We are an arm’s length body of government, transforming financial wellbeing in the UK: We’re here to ensure every person feels more in control of their finances throughout their lives: from pocket money to pensions. Why? Because when they are, communities are healthier, businesses are more prosperous, the economy benefits and individuals feel better off.

Our services are free to your organisation and your patients – we offer financial guidance, insight and partnership to help build financial wellbeing for individuals and organisations.

MaPS is sponsored by the Department for Work and Pensions and funded by levies on both the financial services industry and pension schemes.

We work closely with all four health and care systems in the UK to identify where financial wellbeing support can be integrated into services where it can best support service user needs.

This is in keeping with the range of ‘personalised’ or ‘whole-person’ care agendas being developed and rolled out, which seek to integrate services around a range of health and wider needs associated with individual wellbeing and resilience.

In a survey of health and care professionals that we conducted in 2022, 80% said they hadn’t received any training that was relevant to their role about how to support someone with money issues.

We worked with the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities to create a bite-sized eLearning module on financial wellbeing. This forms part of the All Our Health learning series and is available to all health and care professionals across England.

Access the learning for freeOpens in a new window on the All Our Health learning site.

Money guidance is often given as part of wider services provided by thousands of diverse organisations and practitioners. If you or your staff teams deliver money guidance our programme is here to help.

The Money Guiders programme is for:

• anyone who provides any type of non-regulated money guidance to individuals or groups.
• based anywhere in the UK, in all four nations – national coverage through to small and local groups.
• social prescribing link workers, health visitors, home/domicillary care workers, mental health support workers to name a few.
• those working with young adults through to older adults.

Learn more about Money Guiders.

In addition to our learning and development programmes, we are also working with partner organisations across the UK to develop useful tools and resources to ensure the health and care workforce feel confident and equipped to support the people they work with on money-related issues.

Developed in partnership with the NHS, the money and mental health signposting tool (Money in Mind) sets out a range of questions a mental health professional can ask to explore any issues a service user might be experiencing about money. Depending on the nature of those issues, there is also then a range of national services, tools and resources that can be shared. 

Money in Mind is a tool for mental health professionals across the public, private and voluntary sector, in both health and social care. 

Access the Money in Mind toolkits for each nation.

We worked with the National Academy for Social Prescribing (NASP) to produce a guide for clinical directors within primary care networks across England. The guide focuses on how they can utilise Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme funding to employ link workers, who can provide money guidance or social welfare legal advice. The guide covers why this is important and offers options you can consider, as well as key areas to think about.

Access the guide at The National Academy for Social PrescribingOpens in a new window website.

We also worked in partnership with Mental Health UK and NASP to produce a Mental Health and Money Toolkit, to support people in managing both mental health and money difficulties.

The toolkit is available across the UK.

If your organisation would like physical copies (minimum order of 20) of the toolkit for staff to give to the people they support please email [email protected]

Through MoneyHelperOpens in a new window we offer money guidance services via a range of channels. These services can help people with different abilities, levels of vulnerability and preferences to access support that is right for them.

This free and impartial money guidance can be accessed on the phone, WhatsApp and through digital channels, as well as through guides in Braille, large print and audio formats. Pensions guidance can also be accessed in face-to-face appointments. 

Breathing Space is a government debt respite scheme and provides protections for people living in England and Wales who are in debt. This includes pausing enforcement action and contact from creditors, and freezing interest and charges on their debts. 

While most eligible consumers will access Breathing Space through debt advice services, those receiving mental health crisis care treatment will enter via the mental health access mechanism. Within this route, debt advisers will enter individuals into Breathing Space after receiving evidence that they are receiving crisis care from an Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP). 

The mental health access mechanism is a vital component of Breathing Space. It means vulnerable people who are not able to seek debt advice will still be able to receive protection. MaPS hosts a single point of entry for the mental health access mechanism, making it easier for mental health practitioners to send referrals through to a dedicated debt advice provider.

Learn more about applying for Mental Health Crisis Breathing Space.

Whether your organisation is starting on the journey of boosting employee financial wellbeing, or piloting methods like payroll saving, we can support you by offering:

• a dedicated partnership manager based in your location, with managers in Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and regions across England
• bespoke support to help you build and implement your financial wellbeing strategy
• a selection of guides available in English and Welsh, and in print, braille or audio format, for free
• a help with the cost of living hub featuring articles, tools, calculators and a printable guide to support your colleagues and customers
• our annual Talk Money Week awareness campaign, which provides a platform for conversations about money in all walks of life.