What does money mean to people with a learning disability?
Having access to money when you need it, enables us to live well at home, as well as get out and do the things we enjoy. However, people with a learning disability may need support with some aspects of their money, and so their experience of money and what it means to them may be different to others.
This is why in 2024, along with Thera Trust and the University of Bristol, we launched our Financial Wellbeing Project to find out how people with a learning disability feel about their money and what support they have with their finances.
Sam Holman and Gerard Starling were appointed as Co-Researchers of the project, with Sam having a lived experience of a learning disability. Gerard has a daughter with a learning disability and project manager experience at Thera. On his feelings on the project, Sam told us:
I care about the people I’m meeting and want them to have the best support. This is how Gerard and I have noticed that some the people we support don’t get a choice in terms of spending money. For example, saving up money to go on holiday. This is why this research is important.
Sam and Gerard held two workshops and individual interviews to understand people’s experiences. In total, they spoke to 16 individuals with a learning disability with interviews being up to an hour and a half long.
They asked people about 4 things:
- How they manage their money.
- Spending and saving.
- Support with benefits.
- How they generally feel about their finances.
Many people felt they had freedom over what they could spend but a common theme was the help they had from their support staff or family members. This meant that they didn’t feel as worried about managing their money or the impact of challenges like the cost-of-living crisis.
One person shared his experience of buying a pet gecko! His support team helped him visit the shop and learn how to look after a gecko, including ongoing costs. A family member then helped check affordability and arranged to get him the funds from the account they manage on his behalf.
The above findings and story demonstrate how important having the right support with finances is for people with a learning disability, whether that’s through existing support circles or an organisation like Dosh. However, most people didn’t talk about learning new skills around money and gaining more independence in future.
As a solution to this, Sam and Gerald felt that in the future it would be good to promote independence and control over money within people’s person-centred plans. For example, using person-centred active support approaches to gradually build people’s skills and options around money. This would help people to make their own decisions about what they do with their money, if they would like to.
From these reflections, we are looking at ways we can enable support teams and others to do this, in partnership with support providers and other organisations such as Thera and University of Bristol. We are always looking to improve and innovate our support for people with a learning disability and the project’s findings have been incredibly helpful.
If you want to read more about Sam and Gerald’s findings, you can view the report here. You can also watch back a webinar Sam held in April 2025 where he discussed his findings in more detail!
If you or someone you know with a learning disability would like support to have more financial independence, please get in touch with us using the contact form at the bottom of this page.
Together, we can support you to use your money, your way.
