Martin Lewis

We are nominating Martin Lewis in recognition of his incredible contribution to support and champion the Money and Mental Health Policy Institute, particularly through the challenges caused by the pandemic in the last year. Martin’s commitment is reflected in the fact that he set the charity up and funded its core costs, after seeing first hand how people’s finances and mental health are inextricably linked. This past year, his generosity as chief benefactor of the charity has enabled us to operate without the financial concerns many charities faced in this time. Martin also set up the Coronavirus Poverty Fund, personally donating £1.9m and organising the distribution of £3.4m grants to directly help 415 small charities during the pandemic. His leadership as Chair of our Board has enabled us to navigate the disruption caused by the current crisis — from reshaping our work programme and priorities, to supporting staff through these challenging times. Martin also used his profile to help us have real impact with our lobbying and campaigning — most notably by fronting our Stop the Debt Threats campaign, which persuaded the government to change rules that forced lenders to send intimidating letters to people in debt.