thirtyish
All Topics

Money worries

At your age, money is becoming even more important. It's one of the things that can be there at 3am. That isn't a you problem. It's the most common problem your age group has, and it's measurable.

You're not the only one, and that's not a figure of speech

Money worry peaks at your age. Three organisations measure three different things, and your age band comes out worst in all three.

When Mental Health UK asked 4,502 people across the UK what was causing them stress outside work, money came second overall — and 25 to 34-year-olds were the age group most likely to name it. 65% of them said money worries had caused them stress, against 48% of adults generally. That's the highest of any age group in the survey.

The regulator's own numbers say the same thing from a different angle. The FCA surveyed nearly 18,000 people and put 32% of 25 to 34-year-olds in what it calls low financial resilience — low savings, or struggling with bills, or already in difficulty. Across all adults it's 24%. Again, your band is the worst one.

And a third of everyone who walks through StepChange's door for debt advice is 25 to 34. That's 1/3 when that age group only makes up 1/6 of the population.

(That last one is worth being careful about: it counts people who ask for help, not people who need it. It doesn't say more of us are in debt. It says more of us are ringing.)

Not opening the letter is a normal thing to do

A quarter of people with a mental health condition told the regulator they'd done exactly that.

This is the part nobody says out loud.

The FCA surveyed 17,950 people. Among the nine million UK adults who had a mental health condition, a quarter said they'd put off dealing with money — not opening the correspondence. Nearly one in five said they'd fallen into debt because they didn't want to deal with the situation.

Not because they couldn't afford it. Because opening it was worse.

If that's you, you're not disorganised and you're not stupid. You're doing the documented, common thing. And it's the one thing that reliably makes it worse, because the number you're avoiding is almost never the number you're imagining. That's most of what this site is for. Knowledge is power.

Free help exists, and "free" means free

Debt advice from a charity costs nothing. Not a reduced fee — nothing. Anyone charging you for debt advice is selling you something else.

The people who work for these charities won't judge you, they won't make you do anything, and you don't have to be in crisis to ring. "I think I'm heading for trouble" is a perfectly good reason to call.

If you are struggling and the reason isn't money

These are the people to talk to.

If you're struggling to cope, or you don't feel safe:

One thing almost nobody knows about

There's a legal protection that's far stronger than the one people have heard of, and somebody else can start it for you.

If you're receiving crisis treatment for your mental health and you're in debt, there's a legal protection called Breathing Space (the Debt Respite Scheme), in England and Wales.

Most people have heard of the standard version — 60 days where interest, fees and most enforcement stop. The mental health version is far stronger. It lasts for the whole of your crisis treatment plus another 30 days, there's no 60-day cap, no once-a-year limit, and you don't have to take debt advice or commit to a repayment plan to get it.

And somebody else can start it for you — a carer, a social worker, a nurse or an advocate — which is the point, because the person who needs it most is rarely in a position to arrange it.

Two things to know. It's England and Wales only; Scotland has its own schemes and Northern Ireland has no equivalent. And student loans aren't covered — they're one of the debts the scheme excludes, along with court fines and child maintenance.

MoneyHelper explains how to apply.

Where these numbers come from

Every figure above, with its date and its base.

I'm not a charity, a helpline or a debt adviser — I'm a person with an opinion about honesty. Everyone linked above is the real thing.