More than 40 per cent of brokers still don’t have access to mental health support at work

The Mortgage Industry Mental Health Charter (MIMHC) has today (15th May) revealed its annual Mental Health and Wellbeing Survey, noting that, despite more needs to be done to normalise mental health provision across the mortgage industry, it is improving, with 58% of brokers having access to support at work — up from 54% last year.

The report — which surveyed 239 brokers from across the mortgage industry — aims to understand the market’s current wellbeing and highlights the key areas in which mental health provision needs to improve.

Key findings include:

• brokers are overworked — 46% now work between 45 and 60 hours a week, which is up from 42% last year. Alarmingly, 12% of respondents still maintain they are working more than 60 hours weekly
• brokers aren’t getting enough sleep — 18% don’t get enough sleep on any night of the week
• there is no change to professional contentment — 44% are still disillusioned/ moderately happy with their situation. The majority (56%) are happy with their role
• a happy relationship with a partner remains the top selection as a factor that improves mental health and wellbeing — this has increased from 65% to 69% in 2023. Enough sleep and rest overtakes financial independence in second place this year, with fitness and diet coming in third
• wellbeing is improving — 16% of respondents believe their mental health is ‘poor’ or ‘of concern’.  This is markedly down from 23% in 2022, but continues to highlight the need to support individuals in the sector. At the opposite end, there are 44% feeling ‘good’ or ‘excellent’ compared to 41% in 2022.
• work-life balance is improving — hybrid working is up to 37% from 27% in 2022, and nearly one in four respondents now work permanently from home. As a result, 17% think their work-life balance has improved, up from 8% last year. Some 24% believe it has worsened, down from 30% in 2022.
• not enough companies offer mental health support — 58% of companies provide brokers with support, up from 54% last year. Some 42% don’t, demonstrating there is still a long way to go to normalise mental health provision in the mortgage industry
• brokers are not seeing an improvement in workplace mental health provision — 46% have seen progress, but 54% haven’t, compared to 51% in 2022.

Jason Berry, group sales director at Crystal Specialist Finance and co-founder of MIMHC, commented: “Overall levels of contentment remain similar to 2022 and frustratingly suggest only marginal progress has been made.

“MIMHC’s main aim over the past 12 months has been to encourage companies to incept mental health or wellbeing initiatives and, although it is encouraging to see 58% of respondents now indicate something is in place, the results continue to demonstrate our sector has a lot of work to do.”

MIMHC is a not-for-profit organisation, made up of seven co-founding firms and over 60 signatory companies across the mortgage industry.

This is the fourth year the not-for-profit organisation has surveyed mortgage brokers for their thoughts and opinions on the state of their collective mental health and wellbeing to coincide with Mental Health Awareness Week.