Are we at a tipping point for financial wellbeing?

The financial challenges and barriers faced by communities is a story that continues to play out in our society. Even prior to the onset of Covid-19, financial wellbeing remained a key opportunity area for communities across the UK, with many families and individuals facing extreme hardship. Almost a quarter of people in Wales say they are not managing their money in a way that they can enjoy life, the highest across all the UK regions and much higher than the national average 12%. Covid has increased the importance of this area, with financial adversity projected to hit low-income, infrastructure poor and rural communities the worst.

It’s fair to say that financial wellbeing isn’t a discrete challenge facing individuals and communities; it’s inherently linked to areas like data poverty, economic infrastructure, mental wellbeing, amongst many others. Ultimately our research suggests that poor financial well-being leads to broader health & wellbeing implications. In order to really help solve wide ranging societal challenges around financial wellbeing, we need to start making these connections.

“It gives you more worries…anxiety, depression is a massive thing, the cost of living is crazy, I don’t see a way out, I’m stuck in this job”

At Side-by-Side we’ve embarked on an in-depth discovery journey throughout the pandemic, working financially disenfranchised people in the community to understand how they live their lives, the state of financial wellbeing, the barriers and challenges they face and also to get a grip on some of the influencing variables at play.

Through this, we’ve explored what community means to people and how it links to financial wellbeing, associations with money and what financial insecurity is driven by, as well as importantly, what people need and some exciting opportunities to help people financially thrive, like peer support, access to services or community engagement.

We’ll be sharing some of this insight over the coming weeks in hope of inspiring some positive change.