Michael Parsons, head of the Financial Foundations Programme at Impact on Urban Health, told BBC London: “What we see over and over again is that people’s health is determined by their finances and when they get into money trouble, it makes their health worse.
“People in poor health are more likely to get into financial trouble. It becomes a cycle and you need to find ways of trying to break the cycle by helping people with their money.
“We see most people that go through the scheme say their health is better, they feel better in their mental and physical health.
“We also see a reduction in the number of times people need to go to the GP surgery, which shows that the financial situation is linked.
“The Financial Shield is about freeing up…