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Lloyds Bank becomes first company to receive ‘Mental Health Accessible’ accreditation, after working with Money and Mental Health charity to improve its services
The accreditation follows a comprehensive assessment by the charity of how accessible Lloyds Bank’s services are for customers with mental health problems, and where improvements could be made.
Money and Mental Health’s Mental Health Accessible programme supports essential services providers – such as banks, energy or broadband suppliers and water companies – to better understand and address the challenges that customers with mental health problems face using their services.
The charity created the programme after publishing research which showed that more than half of people with mental health problems face serious difficulties using the phone to carry out essential admin, and four in ten have severe ‘admin anxiety’ — leaving them unable to effectively use essential services.
These problems also have a huge psychological toll — with more than one in five (22%) people with a recent mental health problem saying that they have had a panic attack as a result of dealing with an essential services provider.
In June 2019, Money and Mental Health launched a pilot of the Mental Health Accessible programme in partnership with Lloyds Bank. This saw the charity undertake an in-depth evaluation of how accessible Lloyds Bank’s services are for customers with mental health problems, and offer recommendations on how the bank could make improvements.
In response to Money and Mental Health’s feedback, Lloyds Bank made important changes to its services to make them easier for people with poor mental health to use. These include:
Making its website easier to navigate, including improving content to support customers experiencing mental health or have fallen behind on payments
Clearly signposting to sources of support for customers with gambling or mental health problems
Giving customers the option to save webchat conversations, to help those with reduced memory and concentration.
In light of these changes, Money and Mental Health has awarded Lloyds Bank an “Essentials” rating, the first of three progressively more demanding levels which firms can achieve when taking part in the Mental Health Accessible programme (the other two levels are “Advanced” and “Leading the Way”).
The charity has also given Lloyds Bank an action plan to help it take further steps to make its services more accessible for customers with poor mental health — for example, by making it easier for customers to get support from specialist teams when they are unwell.
With new ONS data suggesting that the number of British adults experiencing symptoms of depression has doubled during the pandemic Money and Mental Health is urging other essential services firms to improve the accessibility of their services by joining the Mental Health Accessible programme.
Katie Alpin, Interim Chief Executive of the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute, said “Around 12 million people across the UK are experiencing mental health problems which can make it extremely difficult to use essential services like telecoms, energy and banking. Not only does that leave people locked out of services which are critical for everyday life, it can also cause serious distress for customers who are already struggling.”
“It’s vital that companies in these sectors take action to make their services easier to use for these customers, and we want to support firms to do that through the Mental Health Accessible programme. We’re delighted that Lloyds Bank has made these improvements as a result of working with us. They will make a real difference for customers experiencing mental health problems.”
“Now we’re urging other firms to work with us to ensure their services are accessible as possible. With the pandemic leaving many more people facing distress and debt problems, it’s more important than ever that everyone can access the services that we all rely on.”
Fiona Cannon, Group Sustainable Business Director for Lloyds Banking Group, said “For Lloyds Bank to be the first bank to achieve the Essentials level in MMHPI’s Mental Health Accessibility Standards demonstrates our strong commitment to raising mental health awareness. This is a significant milestone on our continuing journey towards not only supporting our customers with both visible and invisible disabilities, but also to addressing the stigma that exists around mental health.”
