Financial Stress

Research from Axa published last year (2009) found almost 25 million Britons are suffering from financial anxiety, and 1.4 million taking time off as a result. The research concluded that money worries continue to be the biggest cause of stress and depression in the UK with stress-related illness costing £3.7 billion a year in lost productivity and healthcare costs.

There can be no doubt that the UK consumer faces a complex range of financial issues from high levels of personal debt to lack of planning for retirement. We know that the national annual savings gap now exceeds £27bn with 13million people at work having little, if any retirement provision. But while we know issues like this exist, there’s no agreement on what the solutions should be.

The Government has been asked to take the lead in creating a more financially capable public by offering a set of incentives to both individuals and companies. Until they do why not ask us to council your staff on matters financial. We believe that allowing individuals to engage with money matters in a working environment will lead to improved productivity, reduced sickness absence, greater employee engagement and enhanced loyalty to the employer.