Men, money management and debt

Details of Project/Findings
The intra-household economy is a constantly shifting target for research, policy and practice, in light of accelerated processes of change in relation to family relationships.  For very good reasons to do with the welfare of children, the emphasis within studies of gendered financial arrangements and outcomes has translated, in practice, to a focus on women’s roles.  But men have been shown to control decision - making in relation to household income and expenditure, including spending that can result in debt.  Nevertheless, it is women who tend to have responsibility for servicing household debts and to be the ones to seek professional money advice.  A ‘side-effect’ of the focus in research on women’s roles and the unequal burden they can carry, then, is that men have rarely been the focus of inquiry in their own right.  If men exert such influence over financial decision-making both within and beyond partner relationships, and yet are reluctant to seek advice when problems arise (echoing men’s apparent reluctance to seek timely help in other areas of life, such as health), we need to understand more about their own attitudes and practices in relation to domestic money management; the acquisition of problematic debts; and the facilitators and barriers to their seeking timely debt advice.  This project builds on research on credit and debt recently undertaken by CRSP, in order specifically to:

• explore ‘triggers’ into debt for men on low-middle incomes;
• explore male patterns of domestic ‘money management’;
• explore male definitions of problematic debt and the strategies they use in dealing with it;
• explore men’s attitudes towards (and where possible, experience of) debt/financial advice services; and
• understand the barriers to seeking advice and how advice agencies can make their services more appealing to men at the earliest opportunity.

The study will use in-depth interviews with 20 men, from couple and lone male households with and without children, and will conduct focused secondary analysis of female participants in the Credit and Debt study for comparative purposes.

Sponsor: Money Advice Trust

Project team: Jackie Goode, Alan France, Amanda Waring, Lynne Cox, Nigel Bilsbrough and Rebecca Hand

Project start date/estimated completion date: 1st April 2010 to 31st July 2010

Publication
Goode, J. and Waring, A. (2011) Seeking direction: Men, money advice and the road to financial health. London: Money Advice Trust.

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