Money expert Martin Lewis highlights debt-mental health link
- Published
Financial journalist Martin Lewis says policy-makers need to recognise a link between debt and poor mental health.
No Welsh health board took a strategic approach to debt and mental health even though there was a clear relationship, he told a Senedd meeting.
Mr Lewis said: "Mental health and debt is a marriage made in hell".
He argued that when people are more vulnerable they are more likely to make poor financial decisions.
This in turn can lead to more debt.
Mr Lewis said it was it was a "totally symbiotic relationship" and people with mental health issues were four times more likely to have debt problems.
He said money could be an embarrassing issue and if people cannot, for instance, afford to join colleagues for a coffee that can be isolating and damaging.
Mr Lewis said: "Money is a well-being issue, an enabler and a huge stress when it's going wrong."
The founder of the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute was at an event arranged as part of mental health awareness week in Wales.
It also heard that one in four workers are losing sleep because of worries about money.
Simon Jones of Mind Cymru said half of all adults in Wales have less than £100 in savings to cope with something going wrong like the a car or a washing machine breaking down.
That can then lead them to borrow from more expensive loan companies.
He said debt is a particular issue for men in terms of their feelings of self-worth and their ability to provide for others.
- Published2 July 2018
- Published20 May 2018
