Ben launches new campaign

Ben has launched a new campaign around financial health and wellbeing.

As finances are often a key concern for people in the months of January and February, Ben – the not-for-profit organisation that partners with the automotive industry to provide support to its people and their families – has responded in its new campaign, which highlights how important financial health is as part of a person’s holistic health and wellbeing.

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.  In response to the findings, Ben has launched a budgeting tool on its website.

Zara Ross, chief executive of Ben, said, ‘It’s very important that we talk about financial health as this is a key part of a person’s holistic wellbeing. The fact that it is consistently the biggest concern for our clients means that the industry needs to understand this is an issue. Just last week our Prime Minister Theresa May highlighted the link between debt and mental health. This is why, at Ben, we talk about the importance of holistic health and wellbeing, because one problem often has a knock-on effect on other areas of a person’s life. The four pillars of health and wellbeing (financial, social, physical and mental) are inextricably linked.

‘Over the past few months, we have also seen an increase in demand for our services, so we felt that it was important to extend our helpline opening hours, so we are now open from 8am-8pm every day, including Fridays. We look forward to providing even more information and advice on financial health and wellbeing to the automotive community over the coming months to help people deal with the challenges they may face.’