The strategy, Closing the Gaps: Building Financial Resilience, has been launched by the Association of Financial Mutuals (AFM), the trade body for the UK's financial mutuals sector, and calls on Government to back the sector's growth.

It points to three national gaps holding back financial resilience - a protection gap (too little cover if people fall ill or lose their job), a healthcare gap (ill-health keeping millions out of work), and a savings gap (many households with little or nothing set aside). Locally, those gaps are far from abstract.

Life expectancy in Wolverhampton remains below the national average for both men and women, and the gap in health outcomes between the city's wealthiest and most deprived communities continues to widen. With a large proportion of the city's employers being SMEs, a period of ill-health or an unplanned income shock can hit household finances and business productivity hard - precisely the kind of gap the strategy is aiming to close.

Paycare, which has been supporting community health and wellbeing from its Wolverhampton base for over 150 years, says it recognises these gaps in the communities it serves every day.

CEO Ant Burns said: “For over 150 years, Paycare has been about proactive support - helping people look after their health and finances before a small problem becomes a bigger one, whether that’s routine healthcare, catching an issue early, or simply knowing where to turn.

"As a not-for-profit ourselves, we're proud to support AFM's call for Government to back the mutual sector properly - from making it easier for people to save and protect their income, to removing barriers to health cash plans, to cutting the red tape holding smaller mutuals back. Mutuals already reach people and places mainstream providers often don't, and with the right support, we could do far more.

"Across Europe, many healthcare systems recognise the role supplementary health benefits play in supporting population health and easing demand on public healthcare. In the UK, health cash plans help people access routine dental, optical, physiotherapy and mental wellbeing support, plus quicker access to GP services. If Government wants more employers investing in preventative healthcare, the tax system should encourage that - not disincentivise it through taxation and P11D status.

"With policymakers focused on prevention, workforce wellbeing and reducing pressure on the NHS, there's a clear opportunity to review whether the tax system is properly aligned with those goals."

The strategy calls for a range of practical reforms, including frameworks to help more people save, invest and protect their income automatically, reform of audit rules that add disproportionate costs for smaller mutuals, and prompt implementation of the Law Commission’s recommendations on friendly society legislation.

Ant continued: “For Wolverhampton, these reforms could translate into more local employees able to access affordable health cover, less pressure on SMEs managing staff absence, and greater investment reaching communities that have too often been overlooked by mainstream financial services.”

Over the coming weeks, Paycare will be raising these issues directly with local decision-makers, including its own MP, as part of a wider push by mutuals across the country to turn the strategy’s recommendations into action.