Sunbeams has been working with all ages of the autistic community with the aim of helping individuals build their financial resilience and support them with a better understanding of finances. The goal is to provide autistic people with the tools and knowledge to become more independent, financially, and have a say in decisions and choices made about their futures.

Compared to a neurotypicals, our members have shared that they struggle with financial wellbeing, with most of those we talked to indicating that they were constantly on the breadline and having to borrow money to getting by. 

Comparatively neurodivergent people are on a much lower salary, if they are able to find work at all, and are struggling more than ever with the current cost of living climate.

Low income and difficulty managing finances are detrimental to the financial wellbeing of autistic people with most of our members sharing that they struggle to budget and to put away savings, therefore having to borrow from family or use credit cards to get by, causing a bigger problem for budgeting in the following months. 

Sunbeams has been working on financial wellbeing with their members for a couple of years now and looking at our outcomes we have found that there is a large cohort of our members experiencing mental health difficulties. Depressive symptoms, more often than not, can significantly impact autistic adults’ financial wellbeing, showing the important and complex) relationships between mental health and financial wellbeing.

Autism is not a mental health problem but autistic people can have good and bad mental health like anyone else.

Many autistic adults are unable to access proactive and effective mental health care. As a result, many autistic adults experience high degrees of unmet health needs and often have poor mental health outcomes. Waiting lists are long and oftentimes people with autism are turned away from services as professionals believe that they are not in need of mental health support but support for their autism.

Sunbeams works with a psychotherapist and counsellor who has a special interest in autism. We are raising money to fund counselling sessions for individuals who are having difficulties with their mental health due to their struggles with financial wellbeing, providing a holistic approach that will compliment the financial wellbeing workshops Sunbeams provides regularly. Counselling sessions will focus on the root cause of their difficulties and help them think through and understand why they are struggling and give them coping strategies to move forward.