In an effort to address the complex issues surrounding today’s cost of living, Legal & General Group Protection’s Wellbeing Advisory Board has launched a comprehensive guide offering practical advice and assistance.
The guide covers a wide range of topics including housing, bills, debt, working life, childcare, eldercare, health, leisure activities, and financial abuse.
The guide is freely available for download from Legal & General’s newly established financial wellbeing webpage.
The webpage also offers resources for employers, such as webinars with Wellbeing Advisory Board members, alongside guidance on managing post-Covid-19 syndrome, which has been a key area of focus for the Board.
Comprising experts from clinical, occupational, vocational rehabilitation, and business consulting fields, the Wellbeing Advisory Board collaboratively provides cross-sector insights into current health and wellbeing issues.
Legal & General notes that the primary aim of the Board is to assist both employees and employers in navigating the increasingly intricate wellbeing landscape.
The launch comes at a critical time as the average UK household is reportedly only 19 days from the breadline, as indicated by Legal & General’s latest Deadline to the Breadline report.
The research found those impacted by both Covid-19 and the rising cost of living have significantly higher levels of debt and are a mere week away from the breadline.
A recent study conducted by wellbeing-focused data and analytics firm, Fruitful Insights, in partnership with Legal & General Group Protection, highlighted the strong correlation between financial stability and health.
The study revealed that 21% of participants reporting insufficient income also reported four or more health issues, compared with only 9% in the sufficient income group.
Vanessa Sallows, claims & governance director at Legal & General Group Protection and Chair of the Wellbeing Advisory Board, said: “Financial wellbeing impacts overall health and wellbeing in many ways, influencing our choices around diet and exercise and even around work and relationships.
“For example, we found recently from research for a series of articles that loneliness is disproportionately affecting the younger generation during the cost-of-living crisis; income having a bigger role to play for 16 to 34 year olds, in terms of representing a loneliness risk factor, than for any other age group.
“An appreciation of this kind of joined-up thinking is arguably vital to people keeping well, nipping problems in the bud early and also managing long-term conditions.”
