Worryingly reckless spending

[eeek88]

I have a friend with fairly significant mental health problems. His usual coping strategies have been wiped out by covid and now he just spends money to fill the void. He’s never been great with money but this year his spending has really ramped up. He’s on a low income and has debts (not sure the full extent of them but considering I’m on a decent wage and spend far less than him on luxuries, toys and shiny things to fill the void, I imagine the debts must be fairly extensive).

In many respects he appears to be galloping towards a breakdown. He’s had one before and it took many years to recover. I feel utterly powerless to do anything to help his mental health as I’ve already tried everything that is reasonable, to no avail, and in any case I realise I can’t ‘fix’ him because not even professionals can do that.

My question is: can anything be done about the spending before it’s too late, he gets evicted from his flat or goes bankrupt or racks up a life time’s worth of debt?

I’ve tried questioning his decisions to buy pointless and expensive luxuries and he gets very shirty / defensive / stubborn.

I’ve tried waiting for him to admit that he’s not managing his money well and then talking about ways to prioritise the important things, discussing importance of saving, suggesting he gives a bit every month to a trusted relative to put away for a rainy day... he agrees with everything I say then doesn’t follow up anything...

In the past he’s said that if I’m ever concerned about his mental health I should speak to his relatives but he’s now either fallen out with them, or they have no influence over him.

He has a social worker. Should I pass on my concerns to them?

Are there any other ways to slow of minimise a spiral of self destruction - specifically regarding the money - or do I just have to watch helplessly?

Assuming he is spending by taking out more debt, he can write to the three credit reference agencies to have a correction note on his record that he has a diagnosis and is likely to have periods where he borrows more than he can afford to pay back.

A responsible lender should do an enhanced search and this would flag it up and credit would be refused. An irresponsible lender who did not do the search would have to write the debt off. The note can be removed by him without trace at any time.

I had this done with DB, it was Equifax, Experian and Clear Score.

Money Saving Expert publish a mental health and debt guide- how to request a pause on debts, using an organisation like Step Change who consolidate all debt into one affordable repayment and make the payments for you- much less stressful.

A social worker can have delegated authority over someones finances but I think that is potentially quite limiting for an individual who has some capacity.

If someone is shit with money and doesn't want to change then they probably won't, I learned this the hard way.