Breaking the vicious Cycle: How Poverty Impacts Mental Health
January 02, 2025
What is Poverty?
Poverty is a significant issue affecting millions of people in the UK, with recent estimates indicating that around 12 million people were impacted in (2022-2023) this number, unfortunately, continues to rise due to the UK's ongoing cost-of-living crisis, which has driven up costs of food and energy since 2021.
Poverty is not being able to afford necessities such as food or being unable to heat your home or pay housing bills. It forces people to make difficult and often stressful financial decisions - like choosing between food or clothing for their children for example. This state of material deprivation, where individuals cannot afford essential items or activities may extend to destitution, where you cannot afford basics such as shelter, heating and clothing increasing the risk of homelessness.
This can lead to a lack of access to life opportunities which causes class inequality. Poverty has devastating consequences for families, many people are led to desperate measures to survive, such as crime or drug use which in turn has an impact on the mental and physical health of individuals.
People in poverty often face discrimination due to their financial insecurity as they may be incapable of getting a high-paying job due to their education level for example, which could lead to an immense amount of stress which can affect their overall mental wellbeing. Research indicates that there is a strong link between low income and mental health problems, with poverty acting as both a cause and a consequence of mental illness.
Since the COVID pandemic, Mental health is now valued more than ever due to an increase in mental health issues during periods of isolation and it is now regarded as equally important as physical health, but there is still a significant need to be done to focus specifically on marginalised groups who face a higher risk of mental health challenges.
Poverty statistics in the UK
In 2023, over 300,000 people were experiencing homelessness most of whom are families with dependent children (almost 140,000 children). Due to the cost of living crisis, the UK saw an energy price crisis and a fall in living standards. As of January 2024 over half of households reported increased living costs compared to the previous year and this national crisis led to the most significant increase in absolute poverty in the past 30 years.
Several factors contribute to poverty: Unemployment and low-paid jobs, low education level, the cost-of-living crisis and discrimination against people for their ethnicity class or gender which could further affect their chance at employment and this reinforces cycles of poverty.
Poverty and mental health
Poverty has a wide range of serious consequences, including housing problems, homelessness, and relationship and family problems due to high levels of stress associated with financial hardship. Other outcomes frequently linked with poverty are drug and alcohol problems. However, one of the main problems as highlighted in research into low socioeconomic status is health-related issues, this is both physical and mental health problems.
Living in a low-income household can have adverse effects on your health, like having inadequate access to nutrition could put you more at risk of disease. Also, financial stress could contribute to anxiety or depression due to the inability to afford essentials for oneself or your family. Research has found that compared with a high economic status a low socioeconomic status was associated with an increased risk of physical conditions such as lung cancer, dementia, heart failure, anaemia, obesity, diabetes, disorders of substance abuse, as well as mental issues like mood disorders, self-harm and psychotic disorders.
The majority of these common diseases in low-income families were interconnected with mental health problems and substance abuse. There are findings into how poverty influences the development of mental disorders from studies that have found that in the UK men and women in the lowest fifth income bracket are twice as likely to be at risk of developing mental health problems compared with individuals on average income.
Poverty can directly and indirectly impact mental health in many ways, such as due to low income young people may reduce social activity to minimise spending and this can lead to social isolation which can hurt people's relationships and their mental well-being. Additionally, Poverty is the main contributor to mental illnesses and these mental health issues in turn can perpetuate cycles of poverty for example a lack of motivation to look for a job, risky behaviour, unhealthy diet, complications in help-seeking, and reduced health care.
The link between mental health and inequality is further evident in the prevalence of severe mental disorders: Psychotic disorders are 9 times more common among the lowest income groups compared with the highest income groups. This shows how severe mental health issues such as schizophrenia or personality disorders disproportionately impact individuals in poverty. Also, individuals with mental health problems are more likely than those without to live in poverty or have experienced homelessness, prison, social isolation or unemployment.
Adults in the most deprived areas were twice as likely to experience anxiety or depression and three times more likely to die by suicide, which is an alarming number. Despite this, people who live in economically deprived areas are more likely to need mental health care but are less likely to access support and to recover after receiving treatment this often worsens their mental health. Many reasons for this could be, that individuals from low-income backgrounds may be more reluctant to seek help for example due to unfair access to mental health services or stigma within low-income communities and may instead suffer in silence, showing the social inequalities that may affect individuals with mental disorders.
Additionally, poverty can shape childhood mental health and research has shown that children from the lowest-income households are 4 times more likely to suffer from a mental illness with long-term consequences affecting them into adulthood, this shows how young people from low-income households may also be affected as their parents stress will pass on to them, families experience financial problems can cause mental health problems for the next generation leading to long term mental health struggles within families. Individuals living in poverty were likely to unconsciously internalise money-related trauma from their parents, the study found when thinking about money their thoughts were likely to be accompanied by feelings of stress and anxiety. Therefore, when these young people are faced with financial difficulties in the future, they are met with these familiar feelings of anxiety which then could become overwhelming and lead to mental disorders. Stress can become generational and perhaps link to a form of generational trauma as it will pass on to the next generation of kids in the vicious cycle of poverty.
Barriers to Mental Health Care for Low-Income Populations
For many individuals from low socioeconomic backgrounds, living with a mental disorder can be extremely difficult and isolating. By focusing on people in poverty who have mental health issues and those with mental health problems who are more likely to face poverty we can learn from their real-life experiences. It was found that within disadvantaged communities there is a lot of shame regarding money and mental health and many people feel they don’t deserve support or that mental health is only a “white or middle-class” concern. Perceptions of mental health support differ socioeconomically as many view it as a service that is made for specific social/ethnic groups resulting in people in poverty not feeling like they should get help as it is not a service that is made for them.
People from a working class who may also be from an ethnic minority background (BAME) may see accessible mental healthcare as a ‘privilege’ or even as unnecessary and expensive. This implies that most mental health services are inefficient and not inclusive to people from all backgrounds, making it important to address these issues of structural inequality to improve healthcare systems and access to them.
There is found to be a lot of shame and stigmas about being in poverty, in society many feel that they have ‘failed’ or blame themselves for their current financial problems and this in turn could worsen mental health as people could feel depressed and too ashamed to ask for financial help. In addition to this, the internalised self-stigmas around mental illness also persist in certain demographics like people from rural comminates, parents in poverty, and people from ethnic minority backgrounds. This leads poverty-stricken individuals to be trapped in a cycle of poverty and mental illness and fall into a ‘spiral of adversity’ where employment, money and relationships are all affected by their mental health experience.
Moreover, mental health services are not always practical and easily accessible, as mental health services through the NHS have waiting lists that are extremely long with most people on average having to wait a minimum 3 months to receive support. In 2023, more than 1.8 million people were on the wait list for mental health services. Private health care is costly, and the majority of people do not have the money to receive support making it the biggest obstacle to health care for people from low economic backgrounds.
Racial inequality and mental health
When examining the relationship between poverty and mental health it is important to look at the intersectional elements that shape individuals experience of mental health. Intersectionality refers to how a person’s identities such as their gender, ethnicity and sexuality interact to influence their access to opportunities and privileges. Mental health is closely tied to many forms of inequality, class inequality as well as racial inequality. Inequality places many individuals in society at a disadvantage to their counterparts, particularly in areas such as employment or education.
Being from an ethnic minority background heightens your poverty risk as over 25% of individuals living in poverty were from black, Asian and minority ethnic households and they were more likely to experience material deprivation. Ethnic minorities only make up 14.4% of the UK population and these ethnic minorities are disproportionately concentrated in low-income areas compared to their white counterparts. Specifically, more than 20% of individuals from ethnic groups, such as Bangladeshi and other Asian, black or other ethnic backgrounds experience very extreme poverty.
Furthermore, research has found that certain groups are more at risk of mental health concerning money. Racialised communities that experience systemic racism may have an increased risk of health and financial inequality. Systemic racism is the unequal treatment based on ethnic background embedded within institutions or societal structures such as the criminal justice system or education. BAME individuals are likely to experience racism within the workplace, so it limits employment opportunities due to unconscious bias and discrimination.
The cultural stigma around mental health within some ethnic minority communities further complicates these challenges, as these individuals may have a lack of understanding or acceptance of mental health issues and are more likely to dismiss the need for mental help. Instead, they adopt an unhealthy mindset of just ‘getting on with it’ and ignoring their issues worsening their mental health and putting them at a higher risk of developing severe mental disorders. Being from a low-income and BAME background can have combined effects on an individual’s experience of mental illness, so it is important to focus on marginalised groups to be able to understand and support them as their experience of mental health differs from other groups.
At Mindsum, we are a non–profit aimed at tackling mental health and unequal access to mental health care. We are aware of the struggle of being from a low-income background all while struggling with mental health so we know that mental health problems make it harder to recover from financial difficulty and financial stress can even worsen and prolong periods of poor mental health. To address these issues, we want to provide accessible and inclusive mental health services for all, catering to people from all social and ethnic backgrounds. We prioritise mental health care for people and not for-profit ensuring access to affordable therapy and counselling services including free or low-cost options. Our platform is tech-driven as technology plays a crucial role in delivering the right information and support services, particularly for children and young people but also parents and carers. For individuals from low socioeconomic backgrounds, who often face difficult choices between necessities, we strive to bridge the gap of financial and health inequality by offering a human-centred, all-in-one solution. By integrating tools such as an AI-driven conversation bot, we aim to make mental health support more accessible and effective, ensuring no one is left without the care they need.