The study aims to better understand the intersecting impacts of mental ill-health and money issues on the financial wellbeing of ethnic minority adults in the UK through a brief literature review and secondary data analysis.

Key data sources for this project are:

• The Money and Pensions Service's (MaPS) Debt Needs Survey (DNS). This survey collects demographic data (including ethnic group) and measures of income, financial activity and use of advice services.
• The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Financial Lives Surveys (FLS) provide data on the incidence of savings, loans (e.g. mortgages) and use of financial products by individuals from minority ethnic groups.
• Understanding Society (US) is the largest and most comprehensive longitudinal survey in the UK. Since 2009, it has traced 40 thousand households (including a 5 thousand ethnic minority ‘boost’) annually. It includes a large number of heath measures, income and wealth measures (including sources of income and perception of financial well-being), and demographic and household structure indicators.
• The Labour Force Survey (LFS) collects demographic and some health data, enabling the changing incidence of mental health by ethnic group over time to be analysed.

The project will identify the incidence of mental health problems by ethnic group and the experience of people from minority ethnic groups in terms of debt and seeking advice for debt problems.

Project Team:

Dr David Owen (Principal Investigator)

Dr Sudipa Sarkar

Beate Baldauf

Michael Orton

Project Duration:

September 2021 to February 2022

Project Funder: