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Money and debt:
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16 March 2010
Money, mental health and universityBy Izzi, who writes the blog How to Juggle Glass
Having completed my Bachelor's and Master's degrees, I am currently a PhD student at one of the UK’s top universities. I also have had “severe and enduring” mental health problems since my teenage years, which have had (and still have) a large impact on my life and the lives of those around me.
I write a blog called “How to juggle glass” which chronicles my experiences of having mental health problems at university in an attempt to learn from them and to help others in the same position.
University is a time of money worries for most students, but for me it is a source of very real difficulties.
I have problems with impulse control and am vulnerable to going on wild spending sprees when my mental health is bad. I just can’t help myself and feel like I need to spend, spend, and spend. I also have problems with the mathematics of spending and can go vastly over-budget without even realising it. This has led to me getting into debt problems.
I remember my last spending spree very clearly. When my student bursary was transferred from one place to another I was accidentally paid twice for the same month. Unfortunately this was at Christmas time and so I couldn’t resist a spending spree where I spent over £1000 in one day. Most of the things I spent my money on were presents for others.
I bought an Xbox 360 for my boyfriend and a cashmere scarf for my mum as well as many other things. I also spent nearly £200 on getting my hair done. At the end of this day I had spent an entire month’s wages and had to live with the financial repercussions.
It’s a catch 22: when I find myself getting into debt problems, my mental health deteriorates, which means I am more likely to go on another spending spree and make debt problems worse. It all goes round in a vicious cycle.
I have had some help from the welfare department at my university. They have helped me make a detailed budget so that I feel more in control of my finances. This works well when I am feeling ok, but when my mental health is bad then I still end up going on spending sprees and ruining everything.
I have also just started seeing a social worker and he said that he can help me to deal with my money troubles so there is help coming and I just need to hang on and try to prevent myself from going on any spending sprees in the meantime.
I have been in university now for 6 years. That’s 6 years of having not a lot of money; so not being in control of my finances, even for a little while can have a large impact on my life as I don’t have the buffer zone most people have.
Izzi
6 Comments -
16 December 2009
When the bailiffs callDebt, by its very nature, is stressful. You don’t have enough money for something, so you have to borrow some. You get into cyclical debt.
I know credit underpins our society and the modern economy, but there are a mind-boggling number of options out there and the number of newpaper articles and websites dedicated to giving people advice on how to juggle loans and credit cards clearly shows that we find credit a tricky area to navigate.
So imagine getting to the point where you have so many debts that they became unmanageable, that you just can’t make it all add up; that moment of realisation that the ends will not meet.
You receive your first red letter, a final demand, but you just don’t have the money, so maybe you tuck it away in a drawer. More red letters follow, they get tucked away, then a letter from the bailiffs. Why do they keep writing when you clearly don’t have the money?
Perhaps your creditor has sold your debt to a debt collection agency? How does that work? It soon becomes clear however when bailiffs start phoning, you now owe them the money. They call you, they write to you, they visit you, and they charge you for this ‘service’!
We have heard horror stories here at Mind about people being hounded by bailiffs who have called throughout the day, the evening and even on the weekend. Others report that when bailiffs come round they misrepresent their powers and are quite simply terrifying.
Recognising the connection between debt and mental health is not rocket science; money worries can both trigger and exacerbate mental distress. Last year at Mind we launched our In the red campaign and as part of this we’re calling for the regulation of bailiffs. The good news is there is movement on this front. The Government has committed to introducing independent regulation of the bailiff industry and is now taking this work forward.
But Mind still has concerns that the regulation may not be tough enough to stamp out bad practice.
The Ministry of Justice is handing regulation of the bailiff industry over to the Security Industry Association (SIA), the same body which keeps tabs on bouncers and wheel clampers. Mind is concerned that the SIA as it stands does not have sufficient powers to set rigorous standards, monitor compliance and take firm action against rogue bailiffs.
So what do we want? Well Mind is calling for the SIA to be granted new powers which would enable them to be the strong and proactive regulator (complete with teeth) which is needed for bailiffs. There also needs to be greater emphasis on mental health training and understanding within the debt collection industry.
Being in a situation of personal financial crisis can be devastatingly destructive to an individual’s mental health and sadly there have been many cases reported where a person has taken their own life because of their money problems.
The behaviour of debt collectors should not be allowed to compound a person’s distress, and we need the right regulation to protect the public from the tyrannical bullying which can potentially end in tragedy.
Mind is conducting a survey, which will inform our campaign, on the impact of contact with bailiffs on mental health. If you have had contact with bailiffs, please tell us about your experiences.
Vicki Prout, Mind media team
Start the discussion -
3 November 2009
Challenging the tax manMoney worries can be a major trigger for mental distress. For some people, mental health problems can make it harder to manage money. When Mind undertook to tackle the cycle between financial difficulties and mental health, banks and other creditors were our obvious target. But as our recent research shows, the problem is not just with the financial sector - the tax man needs to take note too.
In January of this year, Mind was commissioned by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to look into how well its service allows for flexibility when supporting people with experience of mental distress to deal with tax issues. We heard from around 125 people about their tax affairs, and contact with HMRC.
The results highlighted that there is much to do to make the tax system accessible to people with mental health problems. Many people said they find calling HMRC difficult during periods of distress, and often there is no alternative to telephone contact. Deadlines are not flexible, so people experiencing distress who are unable to file their tax return can be penalised for their illness. Some correspondence fails the plain English test and can create unnecessary anxiety.Perhaps more worrying was anecdotal evidence from respondents to our survey that when someone reports a mental health problem to HMRC they feel they are not believed.
HMRC staff involved in the research also commented that that staff sometimes think people who are in trouble for not fulfilling their tax obligations are using their mental health problem as a “get out of jail free card”.
One man we spoke to had been accused of lying about his financial circumstances over and over until he doubted himself – creating significant distress and eventually family breakdown as he struggled to make his case heard.
Mind submitted a report of our findings to HMRC in September 2009 and made a number of recommendations. We are now working with the Department to ensure that changes are made.
It is crucial that all government departments meet their requirements under equality law, to provide reasonable adjustments and a service flexible enough to meet the needs of disabled people, including people with mental health problems.
Start the discussion -
14 September 2009
The trouble with moneyI was sad to read in The Guardian a few weeks ago that Tony Levene is leaving his post answering money related questions for the column Capital letters. As his final article indicated, he has done a lot to highlight the issues for people with mental health problems, in particular a diagnosis of bi-polar disorder, and the way they are treated by financial institutions.
At Mind, we're celebrating a year since the re-launch of our legal advice service, and the calls that we get show that many people with mental health problems experience poor treatment when it comes to dealing with financial problems.
There was the call from the woman who had been released from hospital to find that she was homeless due to being in rent arrears. Or the one from the daughter in despair as the bailiffs were outside her father's home whilst he was in hospital under section.
She was told that they couldn't discuss the issue with her due to the Data Protection Act (DPA) which meant she was unable to resolve the situation and her father would return from hospital, still not back to full health, to have to deal with the threat himself. This is despite the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) making it clear that the DPA should not be used as a screen (link to PDF file) behind which to hide from ever dealing with third parties.
The ICO recommends a common sense approach, saying that the DPA should not be used as an excuse by those reluctant to take a balanced decision. Surely this would work for the wider finance issues that people with mental health problems often face?
Any of us stuck in hospital would find it near impossible to keep up repayments on loans or rent, but most of us would want to try to come to a to a reasonable agreement with our finance companies.
Simply forcing the issue would just leave us in a worse situation, and guarantee that we wouldn't have any money to ever pay back the loans!
Tony Levene's Guardian column may be no more, but fortunately he is still sharing his wisdom, in bite size nuggets, on Twitter.
Start the discussion
Bridget O'Connell, Head of Information