Financial support from Macmillan

In this blog, content developer Sarah talks about our financial guidance information.

Financial worries are often a big area of concern if you are affected by cancer. If you need to stop working or reduce your hours because of treatment, that might mean you have less money coming in. You might also find you’re spending more on heating your house, or transport to get to appointments.

Having a reduced income could make it harder to pay your mortgage or rent, or your cancer might mean you need to claim on an insurance policy or pension. You may also be able to claim benefits that could help boost your income, or the income of someone who’s caring for you.

Our financial guidance booklets can help you plan, manage and make decisions about your finances if you’re affected by cancer. Because we know financial information can often be overwhelming and difficult to understand, we try to make sure our booklets are as clear and accessible as possible.

The booklets cover areas like:

• how to talk to your mortgage provider if you’re worried about your mortgage
• how to manage payments and budgeting
• how to find out what benefits you’re entitled to, and how to claim
• how to arrange for someone else to manage your affairs if you’re not able to.

There are five titles in our series – Housing costs, Insurance, Pensions, Planning and managing your finances, and Sorting out your affairs. They are all available to order or download as PDFs from be.Macmillan

All our financial booklets have recently been updated, and we’ve added some new features to make them even easier to use:

• There’s now a glossary in every booklet, explaining some of the most important terms.
• We’ve included some tools that you can use to look at your own situation. For example, a budget planner, and pages to list decisions you need to make about your financial affairs, and who should be involved in making them.

Macmillan also has an online financial support tool with several handy resources:

• a budget planner
• a quick benefits checker
• a benefits calculator.

You can also get help with money worries by calling the Macmillan Support Line on 0808 808 00 00:

• Our financial guides can talk to you about your personal finance options, such as insurance, pensions, mortgages and tax.
• Our welfare rights advisers can help you apply for benefits and other financial support.
• Our energy advisers can help you try to reduce your heating and electricity costs.

In this video, Karen talks about her experience of living with breast cancer and how it affected her finances.

Whatever your situation, Macmillan’s financial support resources can help to make money one less worry.

To see what else Macmillan's cancer information team has been blogging about, please visit our blog home page! You can subscribe to receive our blogs by email or RSS too.

We're with you every step of the way

The Macmillan team is here to help. Our cancer support specialists can answer your questions, offer support, or simply listen if you need a chat. Call us free on 0808 808 00 00.

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