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MoneyResearch

Debt link with mental ill health

19 August 2014

MoneySavingExpert.com 14.05.14

More than a third of people who’ve had mental health problems, or have partners with mental health problems, have experienced severe or crisis debt, the debt advice website MoneySavingExpert.com says. In its survey of almost 10,000 people, they were six times more likely to have had serious debt problems than people who haven’t had mental health problems. Of 4,403 people with mental health problems surveyed, just 23 per cent had never been in debt, 24 per cent had limited debts, 17 per cent had big debts but did not regard them as a problem, and 36 per cent had severe or crisis debates. Of the 5,274 without mental health problems, 51 per cent had never been in debt, 31 per cent had only had limited debts, 12 per cent reported big debts but that they weren’t a problem, and just six per cent reported severe or crisis debts. The debts excluded student loans or mortgages. MoneySavingExpert.com founder Martin Lewis said the combination of debts and mental ill health was ‘a marriage made in hell’.