We’re exploring the intrinsic link between money and mental health. Recent research has found that in the past three months:

• 60% of employees have worried about money at least once a week
• 21% worry about their finances every day
• 54% say their mental health has declined due to money stress

Clearly, financial stress is widespread. But a new report from financial wellbeing experts at Wagestream, Mind over Money, reveals new and profound ways money can interact with our minds.

The research explores a concept known as ‘scarcity mindset’, which suggests that when people have an unmet need, be it food, work or money, they spend time and effort thinking about worrying about that problem, taking away their ability to think about other things.

This bandwidth tax can cost someone up to 13 IQ points, enough to take someone with an ‘average’ IQ score to ‘borderline deficient’. It’s equivalent to losing a night's sleep or being chronically alcoholic.

Mind Over Money delves into the scarcity mindset and the groups of the UK workforce most likely to be affected by this.

The good news is, there are three things which help to lift the impact of financial stress on the scarcity mindset: visibility, predictability and flexibility.

The report explains how financial tools which give people this financial oversight can have incredibly positive effects on their behaviour.