New advice service for people with mental ill health and financial difficulties to be developed

A new 2-year charity partnership is aiming to create a Mental Health and Money Advice Service that will offer support for people experiencing mental health and financial difficulties.   

The partnership, between Lloyds Banking Group and Mental Health UK, also aims to promote awareness of the link between mental health and money problems, encourage discussion between customers and colleagues and raise at least £2 million per year in offices and branches across the UK. 

About 1 in 4 people are affected by mental illness and, of those, around 4 million also struggle with their financial wellbeing. The joint ambition of Lloyds and Mental Health UK – a new charity combining the strength and expertise of Rethink Mental Illness, Hafal, Support in Mind Scotland and MindWise – is to address this increasing need within today’s society and encourage people to open up about their concerns and seek help.

The partnership has come about after 62% of Lloyds’ employees voted in October last year to support mental health as the Group’s new charity theme throughout 2017 and 2018. 

Brian Dow, director of external affairs at Rethink Mental Illness, said: “We are incredibly excited about what this partnership between Mental Health UK and Lloyds Banking Group can achieve. It’s the coming together of an organisation that really understands money, and charities that really understand mental health, and those two things belong together. Having the support of such a large banking group will enable us to make a huge difference supporting the four million people affected by both mental health and financial challenges in the UK.”

David Oldfield, group director retail & consumer finance, and executive sponsor for disability at Lloyds Banking Group, added: “It’s very clear to us from our colleagues how much they care about mental health and they recognise how hard this can be to discuss. I’m delighted that the Group is working with Mental Health UK to help raise awareness and reduce the stigma of mental illness.

“Our colleagues feeling passionate about the issue is key to how successful we can be in working with our charity partners and delivering the commitments we made within our Helping Britain Prosper Plan. We have a great track record of raising significant funds through our colleagues who are also very involved across their local communities. Given the importance of good mental health and wellbeing I’m confident that with the support of our colleagues we’ll be able to raise £2 million this year alone to help Mental Health UK to provide support and help for those who need it.”