A Money Guiders blog with Carers First Being a carer can have a huge impact on many aspects of your life, including your financial wellbeing. Alison Pask, Relationship Manager on our Money Guiders programme, shares how Carers First supports those financial wellbeing needs, and how your organisation can support customers and employees who are carers. How many carers are there? It is estimated in the 2021 Census that across the UK there are 5 million people caring for a family member or friend who due to illness, disability, a mental health problem or an addiction cannot cope without their supp ..read more

Earlier this year we published a blog on the overall findings of our latest Debt Need Survey, which measures the number of UK adults who need debt advice. Here, Debt Insight Manager Paul Das looks at what the survey tells us about the financial wellbeing of 18–24-year-olds in the UK. Our definition of “needing debt advice” is that a person needs to go through a regulated advice process including a full review of a client’s personal circumstances, not just receiving general guidance. We define ‘strong indications of needing advice’ as being “currently behind on at least one priority bill ..read more

Policy managers Sophia Spence-Cheng and Zoe Renton share their thoughts on a new £1.1 million grant programme, funded by the Money and Pensions Service, which tests scaling up projects that deliver financial education training to teachers and practitioners or offer direct delivery of financial education to children and young people in vulnerable circumstances. We know that financial education works. Children and young people who recall learning about money at school are more likely to save frequently, have a bank account, and be confident managing their money. However, less than half of the ..read more

Debt Insight Manager Paul Das shares what we know about the changes in how many people need debt advice, who might need advice in the future and how people are responding to changes in the cost of living. In 2021, MaPS adopted a new way of measuring the need for debt advice and we reported back on who needed debt advice using the results from our 2021 debt need survey.  For a recap (including an explainer on the new measure) click here.  The survey gives us insights on a broad cross section of society including ethnic minority, socially deprived and rural communities.  The ..read more

The Money and Pensions Service’s (MaPS) Chief Executive, Caroline Siarkiewicz, discusses why focusing on financial wellbeing is even more important in the wake of recent cost-of-living increases.  Many people are worried about money right now, yet research shows that just talking about it can help to build a sense of overall wellbeing. Talk Money Week aims to encourage these money conversations, and to help businesses and organisations to showcase support and information that individuals can access. However, it’s vital that these conversations continue throughout the year. Over the past ..read more

The Money and Pensions Service’s (MaPS) Propositions, Insights and External Engagement Director, Sarah Porretta, on the importance of financial education for children and resources available to schools and families during Talk Money Week. This week we’re working to turn talking about money from one of the UK’s least favourite topics into something that becomes as natural and familiar as talking about the weather. Children’s money habits are formed younger than you think; even by the age of seven, children have started to develop attitudes and habits around money. Talking with children and you ..read more

This Debt Awareness Week, Craig Simmons, head of debt policy and strategy at the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS), provides an update on MaPS activity to drive forward better debt advice.  On the verge of a new financial year, organisations across the UK are no doubt deep in thought about their budgets for the year ahead. While entirely true for the debt advice sector too, it’ll also be our customers’ budgets that are at the forefront of our minds in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. Increased debt advice demand and investment A host of organisations, including MaPS, have h ..read more

Charlotte Jackson is head of guidance services and customer protection strategy at the Money and Pensions Service. Her pensions guidance teams support those scammed on pensions and investments or who have questions and concerns about them. Charlotte also works with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and others to share any insights from her teams that may protect consumers from future harm. In this blog, to coincide with Scams Awareness fortnight, she talks about MaPS’ Pension Loss Appointment which helps customers who need to recover lost monies. Scams can ruin lives  Pensions and in ..read more

What impact has Covid-19 had on financial wellbeing? Our head of insight Nick Watkins explores on how the pandemic has affected the UK Strategy for Financial Wellbeing goals for financial education, saving, credit use, debt advice and pensions. When we launched the UK Strategy for Financial Wellbeing in January 2020, we had no idea that the first Covid-19 cases would be detected in the UK later that same month, or that within weeks the entire country would be in lockdown. Nearly eighteen months later we are only just emerging from what we all hope is the worst of the health crisis. Now s ..read more

Money problems can cause mental health problems, and mental health problems can cause money problems. This Mental Health Awareness Week policy, insights and external engagement director Sarah Porretta shares four of the ways that the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS) helps customers caught in this spiral, and how your organisation can help us reach more people. Money and mental health go hand in hand.  One in five people with mental health problems are in problem debt. It’s a two-way relationship where problems with one can make the other worse.  We know that people caught ..read more