Clean Slate, home to Quids in!, is on a mission to get people to open up about money, for the sake of our finances and our wellbeing

Clean Slate has used Talk Money Week to highlight the benefits of opening up about money and pensions.

Incomes and earning abilities have taken a hit from the fallout of Covid, making the annual awareness campaign even more vital in starting conversations and reducing stigma.

Clean Slate’s work focuses on supporting people on low incomes to manage their money better, find work or better paid work, and to get online. 

People like Clare, who is slowly putting her life back together after losing her business due to the pandemic. She overcame her embarrassment about talking about her situation and now feels it’s beneficial to share her experiences to help others.

How can I admit I’m in this position? Even my closest friends didn’t know

Clare, Clean Slate service user

“I definitely feel comfortable talking about my journey now,” she says. “I would have been embarrassed before. Now, I almost feel determined to bring this to light.”

Clare, 42, had set up a landscaping business with her partner and took out credit cards and overdrafts. In 2019 she had a baby and the following year the business began to suffer due to Covid – and the debts built up.

She split from her partner and was left with two children, unable to pay her bills and worrying about putting food on the table.

Clean Slate stepped in, taking away Clare’s feelings of shame and finding practical ways to get her back on her feet – like moving her debt on to two interest-free credit cards.

“People would probably look at me and assume that I’m not having money worries,” says Clare. “I just thought, ‘Oh my gosh, how can I admit that I’m in this position?’ Even my closest friends didn’t really know.

“But it absolutely does need to be talked about and people need to feel that it’s OK. It’s nothing to be embarrassed about. There’s a lot of stigma that needs to be broken down.”

Now, after receiving help from Clean Slate, Clare has enrolled at university to train as a mental health nurse – which brings council tax relief and saves her £120 a month.

All from opening up about her situation and finding the right help.

“I’m proud of the fact that I asked for help,” she says. “It’s part of who I am and it’s certainly kept me grounded. If my story can help, then great. If it helps people to change their habits, open their mail, open their bills. It’s a knock-on effect, I guess.”

If more people were open and honest then others would be more comfortable asking for help

Barber, businessman and author Mark Maciver

With her qualification, Clare plans to open a retreat for others facing trauma to offer the kind of support that helped her get through.

Mark Maciver is an author and award-winning businessman – the man behind the SliderCuts barbers in East London. His client list includes Stormzy, Anthony Joshua and Reggie Yates, but what really makes him stand out as a businessman is his willingness to speak openly about his relationship with money with his customers.

People are shy to admit what they don’t know, says Mark – who recently teamed up with Clean Slate to raise awareness of digital exclusion.

“I speak about money all the time,” he says. “So people in my chair, they’re very willing to talk about finances. I think that’s creating a safe space for people to talk. There’s a lot that I’ve seen where they’re embarrassed about things like being in debt and not knowing how to get out of it. I”m very open about my situation. If I’m in debt, I’ll say that I’m in debt.

“If more people were open and honest then others would be more comfortable talking about their issues or asking for help.

“You’re not the only person who doesn’t understand finance, you’re not the only person who doesn’t know how to use the internet,” he says.

Talk Money Week is held every November, coordinated by the Money and Pensions Service, to highlight the benefits to our wellbeing of opening up about money.

The aim is to encourage the conversations – with family, friends, neighbours and colleagues – that help us look after our financial wellbeing.

It aligns with the mission of Clean Slate, which has grown from a staff of 15 in 2020 to 50 in 2021 as personal finances took a battering due to the pandemic.

During the height of the crisis, Clean Slate moved from in-person centres to phone and online services for their programmes, including our very successful Money Health Check quiz to assess financial resilience and support people to make positive changes. In-person support has now resumed, and runs alongside digital options.

Opening up about money matters really helps – in a survey 90 per cent of Clean Slate clients said they were confident that they’d know where to get help after completing our programme. This compared to fewer than 40 per cent after their first call.