Ben, the not-for-profit organisation that partners with the automotive industry to provide support for life to its people and their families has launched a new campaign around financial health and well-being.
As finances are often a key concern for people in the months of January and February, Ben has responded in its new campaign, which highlights how important financial health is as part of a person’s holistic health and wellbeing.
As the post-Christmas credit card bills hit, that’s when things can become tougher for people and that’s when they may need to seek Ben’s help. The new campaign has launched in line with Blue Monday which is said to be ‘the most depressing day of the year’ due to debt, winter weather, and post-Christmas blues. This said, mental health charity, Mind, has countered this with #BlueAnyDay, which is based around the premise that depression isn’t dictated by one single date.
Ben has seen an increase in demand and its figures for July-September 2016 showed a 51% increase in requests for help from the quarter before, which included calls to the helpline, emails and referrals from other organisations. During this time, 49% of requests for help to Ben were from people concerned about their finances.
Top financial concern for people contacting Ben last year was low income. In fact, low income accounted for 71% of financial-related requests for help last year – this is a huge increase of 541% on 2015! Other key concerns for people last year were housing arrears, money management and debt.