Mental Health & Debt

We all know that as Christmas approaches, many are worried about how they are going to afford Christmas, as well as paying the usual household bills, and many people have debt problems already to add to their burden of money worries.

No debt problems are unsolvable. It might not be easy or quick, but there's always a route. When mental health problems are involved, some special solutions apply.

Martin Lewis launches the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute

Having planned it for years, Martin's founded the big new Money and Mental Health Policy Institute to be run by former No. 10 special advisor Polly Mackenzie. The aim is to research, investigate and lobby for change on mental health issues and debt.

As an idea of what it'll look at, one area of exploration is giving people tools when they're well, so they can control themselves when they're not.

For example, spending sprees are common both with clinical depression and bipolar disorder. So being able to put a freeze on your credit file that takes eight weeks to unlock, so you can't apply meanwhile, would be useful.

For more info, see the video and news story Stop the debt and mental health marriage made in hell. To help the new institute, if you're affected please take this 5min survey.

Get the free Mental Health & Debt guide

This is a free 44-page PDF booklet supported by Mind, Rethink, CAPUK and others, for people with mental health problems and those caring for them.

It covers how to handle debts when unwell, work with banks, free debt counselling, specific tips for bipolar disorder or depression sufferers, whether to declare a condition and more.

PDFs require you to have Adobe Acrobat reader. If you don't, download it here for free. Download the mental health guide here mentalhealthguide.pdf