- The Observer
56 11.08.19 Cash
Mental health issues
and debt: kindness is
not good enough
F
or Andrew Dickens, the
problems started as soon
as he was old enough to
get credit. “I was terri-
ble with money,” he says.
“And it was the late ’90s
and credit was dished out like sweets.”
After leaving university, he would fre-
quently build up debt on credit cards
to fund his lifestyle, before being
offered consolidation loans to bring
the balance to zero. “And off you go
again.” He was even given a £10,000
consolidation loan by a bank when
“they knew I was unemployed”.
A cocaine addiction, linked to his
depression, accelerated the accu-
mulation of debt – he estimates that
at one point during his mid-20s, he
owed more than £50,000.
“It all became a nasty circle: my
debt fuelled my illness, my illness
made me build up more debt, and
so on. The problem was, my mental
health issues prevented me from con-
fronting it,” he says.”
For Dickens, like many others,
issues with money and mental health
are delicately interwoven. It’s a wide-
spread problem: just as people in
problem debt are signifi cantly more
likely to experience mental health
problems, those with mental health
problems are more likely to end up
in problem debt.
In a survey by the Money and
Mental Health Policy Institute
(MMHPI), 86% said their fi nancial sit-
uation had made their mental health
problems worse. But despite the copi-
ous evidence suggesting exactly how
connected the two factors are, critics
say that banks and utility companies
are still falling short when it comes to
supporting their customers.
“If someone has a physical disabil-
ity or sensory impairment, most com-
panies know what to do,” says Helen
Undy, director of the MMHPI.
“Even if they’re not doing it bril-
liantly, if someone says they’re vis-
ually impaired or have hearing loss,
fi rms tend to know what adjustments
they should be making, and gener-
ally those things tend to be available.”
But if somebody has a severe men-
tal health problem, most companies
“don’t know what to do”, she says.
“There’s been an increasing focus
over the past couple of years on
being kinder and more understand-
ing, which is a good start. But actu-
ally, kindness doesn’t necessarily give
you access to the services you need.”
It’s with this in mind that the
institute has developed a new set of
accessibility standards, designed to
improve access to essential services.
Working with 25 providers across
fi nancial services, energy, water and
telecoms, the standards lay out 11 key
areas for fi rms to improve on. Among
these are ensuring that services are
as accessible as possible, and being
able to provide specialist support
for those who disclose their mental
health problems.
Companies are encouraged to train
staff, improve systems and processes,
give customers their own tools to
manage their fi nances, ensure cus-
tomers can communicate with pro-
viders in a variety of ways, and
improving website accessibility.
The service providers are asked torecognise customer fears and com-
municate in a way that’s easy to
understand.
While some solutions to the prob-
lems can be accessed via technology
(challenger bank Monzo, for exam-
ple, uses card blocks and delayed pay-
ments to make it harder for mentally
ill customers to spend money), many
other suggestions could be relatively
simple to implement.
Undy points to logins. Is there not
an easier way for banks to confi rm
who customers are? “There are so
many passwords, pin numbers, secret
names,” she says. “Many people fi nd
they’re essentially locked out.”
If you can get into your account,
you may not be able to remember the
details of a conversation you’ve had in
store or on the phone.
“Firms are ending up with repeat
callers who can’t remember if they
have debts or a direct debit set up,
or what kind of repayment plan they
agreed,” she says. “For some people
this can be very distressing, especially
if they’re already anxious.”
Sending reminders after the con-
versation of what was agreed would
be simple to implement, Undy argues,
and so would other low-tech features,
such as the ability to download a con-
versation you’ve had on web chat.
“At a very basic level, you can train
your staff to ask at an important point
during the phone call: Do you have
a pen and paper? Here are the key
bits of information you need to know.”
Giving customers options – which
Undy describes as “just good customer
service” – is key. “We know that half of
people with mental health problems
have significant difficulty making
phone calls,” she says. “So what’s going
to make the difference is being able
to pay your bill or update your meter
reading via web chat or email. We just
need a range of ways to do things.”
After a year of research andUnderstanding of
how depression and
similar diffi culties
can contribute to
money problems has
increased, but giving
people access to the
help they need has not,
Emily Reynolds reports
Landmark verdict over letting agency that posed as a ‘club’
A
lettings agency that
posed as a member-
ship club to dodge
tenancy laws has
been fi ned more than
£40,000 in the fi rst
prosecution of its kind in the UK.
Lifestyle Club Ltd pressured
tenants to sign a contract with-
out inspecting the terms or the
accommodation, charged them a
non-refundable “joining” fee and
“membership” fee worth a month’s
rent instead of a deposit, and
directed those who complained to a
non-existent redress service.
The company operated from the
same trading address as Lifestyle
Club LSC Ltd which was exposed
by the Observer last year. While
Lifestyle Club LSC marketed the
properties – aimed at young over-
seas renters – tenants’ contracts
were with Lifestyle Club Ltd. The
terms and conditions reserved the
right to evict tenants with sevendays’ notice instead of the 28-84
days required by the Tenancy Act.
Its terms and conditions allowed
its agents the right to enter pri-
vate rooms unannounced at any
time while banning visits from non-
members. It required tenants to
maintain and replace appliances at
their own expense, leave any fur-
niture they had paid for when they
moved out and levied large fees for
“breaches” of membership.
One group of fl at sharers was
charged £90 for leaving unwashed
dishes in the sink. The companies’
self-employed agents were chargedsimilar levies for breaching sales
targets or taking time off.
Last week the director of Lifestyle
Club Ltd, Gian Paolo Aliatis, was
required to pay £42,273 in fi nes,
compensation and costs after plead-
ing guilty to three charges of unfair
commercial practice. In a prosecu-
tion brought by Islington Trading
Standards in London, Aliatis admit-
ted passing the lettings agency off as
a membership club to avoid the legal
regulations for lettings agents.
Under the law, tenants’ depos-
its must be refundable and paid
into a tenancy deposit protectionscheme. Aliatis admitted that his
fi rm demanded a non-refunda-
ble “joining” fee. He also admitted
pressuring customers into signing a
“membership agreement” without
giving them time to read and under-
stand the document, and deny-
ing potential tenants the chance
to view a property before signing.
Rental payments were passed off as
a “monthly contribution fee”.
While letting agents are required
by law to belong to a registered
redress scheme , Lifestyle Club Ltd
instead directed anyone who raised
a complaint to a fake independentA ‘major v ictor y ’
f o r a l l p r i v a t e t e n a n t s.
Anna Tims reports
ПОДГОТОВИЛА
ГРУППА"What's News"
VK.COM/WSNWS