Earlier this year we published research with YouGov about how ADHD can impact the way you manage your money.
People told us they were more likely to impulse spend, miss bill payments, struggle with debt and experience anxiety about their money – and we found on average it could cost people £1,600 extra a year.
We’ve just published some new research showing the way ADHD affects your money has an outsized impact on women – costing them an extra £200 when compared to men.
As more and more women are being diagnosed with ADHD, typically later in life – we want to raise awareness and highlight how digital banks like Monzo could help.
Check out the findings from our latest research – and stay tuned this week because we’ll be talking more about this across our social channels.
You can help us spread the word and start conversations about this by sharing from our social channels.
And if you’ve got any thoughts or experiences to share on the topic, we’d love to hear from you in the comments.
Just to note, it’s really great to see Monzo making good steps here. I don’t think it’s really talked about enough, so I’m glad it is.
I don’t have diagnosed ADHD but I can absolutely relate to struggling for some time around impulse spending, overspending and being anxious around money.
Often I would always spend more than I really had, forget about bills and then be surprised when my balance dropped and I didn’t have anything left. Plus, buying things I didn’t really need just to get a nice feeling.
Monzo helped me overcome this through being really clear on what I actually had (available balance) plus budgeting and nudge theory (i.e I could see I only had £x left in my shopping budget meaning it made me think twice about that item).
Plus, walking out of shops and waiting for the urge to buy to subside and then only going back in if I really did need the item stopped me from just buying it there and then.
So, thank you Monzo for helping me with that
EDIT: I realise the theme is around women, and I’m not intentionally trying to make this less about them/me - happy to move this into the other thread if it’s more appropriate there
This topic title feels a little clickbaity - maybe even intentionally, as the actual figure is £200 more than men, the way that I read the title was an extra £1695 more than men. Then the linked article doesn’t even back that up, it is just what people ‘think’. This isn’t to take away from your work of course, but I would love to see a proper study on the inequality here.
Me too. There’s a line in my head between those that have ADHD and struggle, and just those who can’t budget/splash the cash too much. Just because you do the latter it doesn’t mean you automatically have ADHD
This is really interesting thank you so much for sharing. I wonder what else causes the disparity (apart from later diagnosis). I feel like there is something societal at play as well. For example when I was a teenager socialising would often involve extended shopping trips.
Thank you Monzo for looking in to how to better support your diverse customer base. It’s wonderfully supportive and empowering.
As a primary teacher, I am fully aware that it is much harder to get a diagnosis ADHD with girls than boys. My younger brother has ADHD (diagnosed as a child) and my mum was also diagnosed much later at the age of 46.
Personally, I have referred to the Educational Psychologist or the NHS, for an ADHD assessment, is around the same for boys and girls. I have got back only 1 girl diagnosed and around 5 or 6 boys.
More information on this can be read from the BBC.
Yeah, I’ve been in two minds about sharing my feelings on this in any of the threads Monzo have posted about ADHD in recent weeks. I don’t particularly feel comfortable sharing this at all, but here goes. The net positive for people like me is a good thing and so don’t want to undermine that, but you’ve touched upon the thing responsible for my feeling the way I do.
ADHD is feeling like it’s starting to become the new OCD thanks to TikTok. People noticing minor traits in themselves and self diagnosing to excuse things away. It does a real disservice to folks with genuine struggles. Corporations are of course jumping onto it too (a lot of others have suddenly started caring about ADHD over the last few months out of nowhere), and the cynicism within me believes that’s why we’re seeing them do this now, and not before, and limiting the scope just to ADHD. Because it’s the latest trend. Everyone has ADHD now don’t ya know!
These social media things leave me feeling a bit bleh (shitty but I don’t like swearing) for lack of a meaningful word, even though it’s a net positive for someone like me who is actually diagnosed with ADHD (far too late because of our crappy NHS postcode lottery) and has struggled with it for much of my life. It’s why I haven’t been engaging with Monzo’s posts really aside from recommending their session to my brother. A bit like the 13 reasons why effect, the outcome is good, but the intent feels off to me and seems insincere I guess. I can’t quite explain it, other than it makes me bleh.
I’m a big believer in the outcome of one’s action trumping the intent, or even the action itself, and the outcome of it in what Monzo are now doing is a pure good thing for folks with ADHD, so I applaud it and hope that this is just the beginning of a much wider movement.
Yes - a very well put together post. With the none intent to de-rail as someone who suffers (though now thankfully, under control) from OCD I can tell you it’s one hella lot different to just “seeing something slightly out of order” - it had real life impact and implications on my life, relationships, friendships etc.
Back on topic, would love to hear from diagnosed folk on here as to how Monzo has helped them with their finances.
The instant spend “holds” (rather than appearing and clearing days later), the predictive spending tools and the pots to keep bills money away from other funds has meant that for the first time in my whole life I have no debt (car and house excluded) and I’m starting to make savings.
I couldn’t do it with my old bank. The one pot of money was impossible for me to visualise and/or manage to ensure all bills were covered. It was just a big pot of shiny shiny spending money. Spreadsheets didn’t cut it at all.
Hello, you’re right, it’s important to hear some real customer stories too, and we recently spoke to Nadia and Hannah who both have diagnosed ADHD. They shared a bit more about their journey, and how they’re using Monzo to help manage their money. Their stories are up on our blog now, and we’ll be sharing them both on social later today!
It’s brilliant that you’re saving and that Pots has been helping. A few people from our research said the same thing - not having all your money come out of one big Pot can help you see where all your money is going.
What’s the best way to have an official diagnosis (and subsequently to try and bring under control) for OCD?
I definitely have it (beyond “oh X is not perfectly aligned”) but it’s not something I ever really pursued, I just suffer in silence. Mainly because of the postcode lottery @N26throwaway mentions
Bupa. Even if it’s just for a few consultations so they’ll make a referral to the NHS that your GP won’t. It’ll take longer (a few years at most) but only cost a few hundred.
You can go it completely private, but you’re looking at thousands and it will take a few months probably (don’t know what the diagnoses process is for OCD, but presuming it’ll be similar to the sort of things I I had to do for ADHD and Asperger’s).
If you want any kind of treatment or support post diagnosis, you’re probably out of luck (too old, or postcode, or both) so it’s private again, but not just the referral this time, the actual treatment, probably a specialised therapy. No idea how much this cost you. For the Special therapy I had for autism it was £2000 per session. I needed them weekly for many months. It wasn’t cheap. It’s cheaper in America actually. And that’s because my constituency was the only one in my area (only labour one if that makes a difference, I point it out because they changed to conservative at the last election and recently started offering the service after decades of not under a labour MP who my grandmother wrote to several times and begged for their help for me when I was a child. They all went ignored.) who didn’t offer that treatment on the NHS. If I’d lived a few minutes down the road, I’d have had the same help from early childhood, for free.
It’s completely different in Scotland. My brother got better help with ADHD and a faster diagnosis here, for free, on the NHS. Life changing for his mental health at a crucial point in his teens.
