Broker mental health improving but more support still needed, MIMHC survey shows

The Mortgage Industry Mental Health Charter (MIMHC) has shared the findings of its annual survey for 2023, finding that 58% of companies are now providing brokers with support – up from 54% last year.

However, the Charter says that as 42% still don’t, there is "a long way to go to normalise mental health provision in the mortgage industry".

46% of brokers say they have seen an improvement in workplace mental health provision over the past year, but 54% haven’t - compared to 51% in 2022.

The fourth annual survey, which coincides with Mental Health Awareness Week, aims to understand the mortgage industry’s current well-being, and importantly, highlights the key areas in which mental health provision needs to improve.

The survey found that brokers are increasingly overworked. 46% now work between 45/60 hours which is up from 42% last year. 12% of respondents still maintain that they are working more than 60 hours weekly.

Brokers also reported no change to professional contentment. 44% are still disillusioned/ moderately happy with their situation. However, the majority (56%) are happy with their role.

In addition, wellbeing is improving. 16% of respondents believe their mental health is ‘poor’ or ‘of concern’. This is markedly down from a 23% result in 2022 but continues to highlight the need to support individuals in the mortgage sector. At the opposite end 44% of people reported feeling good/excellent compared to 41% in 2022.

Worklife balance is improving. Although a blend is still evident, hybrid working is up to 37% from 27% in 2022 and nearly 1 in 4 respondents now work permanently from home. As a result, 17% think their work/life balance has improved – up from 8% last year. Only 24% believe it has worsened which is down from 30% in 2022.

The full report is available to read at https://mimhc.co.uk/mimhc-mental-health-wellbeing-survey-report-2023.

MIMHC is a not-for-profit organisation, created to raise awareness of employees’ mental health and support the industry in taking positive action to improve it. MIMHC is made up of 7 co-founding firms plus over 60 signatory companies across the mortgage industry.

A total of 239 brokers from across the mortgage industry took part in this year’s survey.

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 last 12 months has been to encourage companies to incept mental health or well-being 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. Too many people continue to suffer in silence with zero support.”