Research conducted by the Money & Mental Health Policy Institute concluded that there are over three million adults in the UK with both mental health problems and financial difficulties. The two issues can become intrinsically linked putting further pressure on one’s mental health and ability to recover the financial situation. If you’d like to find out more about their work, you can read their information - Money & Mental Health - The Facts.
Further research from Save the Student showed that when it comes to living on a budget, you may need to make sacrifices to your social life and sometimes essential costs, this can lead to loneliness and isolation which can impact your personal and mental wellbeing.
Accessing support at King’s
If this sounds like your situation, there is help at King’s both in the form of mental health support and practical support. For mental health support, the Counselling and Mental Health Team can help. If you think you may need counselling and would like to find out more, do read our articles for more details:
- How can the Counselling & Mental Health Support Service help me?
- How many sessions and what type of counselling support is offered?
If you feel you need counselling outside our usual working hours, please refer to our article Mental health support during evenings, weekends & vacation periods.
Practical support for any financial difficulties is available from the Money & Housing Advice Team.
Specialist Advisers can help you to resolve issues you may be experiencing with your funding and apply for additional support. Our Student Money Mentors can also provide peer support to help you to make the most of your student budget, save money with their hints and tricks and provide you with support and encouragement if you are looking at how you can better manage your budget.
There are a range of hardship funds and bursaries at King’s, which we would encourage any students in financial difficulty to apply for; find out more detail in our article I'm having money difficulties, where can I find support?
But this may only be a sticking plaster for some of your financial concerns - talking through your situation may help you to find more longer-term solutions.
Money Workshops
Our workshops are available to you online as videos, so that you can get this support wherever you are. Check out our article What online workshops & presentations do Student Services provide?, and in particular we encourage you spend some time on Financial wellbeing video series which you may find helpful.
Money & Housing Specialist
A Specialist Money & Housing Adviser is available to talk about your personal financial situation and explore strategies for resolving your current issues or take steps to avoid problems in the future.
Peer support in Money Advice
A Student Money Mentor can talk to you about how they have saved money at university, the tricks to gaining freebies and making your money go further. Perhaps you would benefit from the support of a peer when looking at your spending in more depth and considering where you can make some changes and set some goals.
An adviser will assess if this is the most appropriate support for you and make appropriate arrangements to meet with you online or by telephone.
Online financial education tools
Our partners Blackbullion provide an online platform of financial education tools which teach you how to budget, evaluate risks, squirrel away savings and manage debt.