Financial education was back in the news recently, as Martin Lewis (as reported by FT Adviser) spoke to the education committee about the “real poverty of financial education in the UK” and a woeful lack of resources and teacher training and support.
He’s not wrong.
Research from the Money and Pensions Service (Maps) last year found that less than half (47 per cent) of the 4,740 children aged 7-17 they surveyed had received a meaningful financial education at home or school, a figure that’s pretty much stayed the same since the survey was conducted in 2019.
Children’s attitudes and habits about money are shown to have developed by the age of seven.
FCA research suggests that nearly 13mn UK adults have low financial resilience, with a lack of financial capability being the key driver for a fifth of people showing signs of financial vulnerability, which ultimately puts the brakes on social mobility.
This all makes for a depressing read.
Despite the many challenges they face, I’ve yet to meet a teacher who doesn’t think that teaching financial education is a good idea. Getting teachers onboard is not the issue.
Delivering it consistently in all 20,000 primary schools is the real stumbling block and that can only be done with government leadership.
As it stands, the inconsistency in how it is delivered means it hasn’t always produced the right outcomes. And if you live in an area of greater deprivation, you are much less likely to receive any kind of financial education at primary school.
In the UK, to our shame, we’ve been squandering the potential of millions of children year after year because we don’t equip them with the everyday life skills around money that they need in adulthood. In doing so we perpetuate a pernicious cycle of disadvantage.
That cycle has to be broken. And it has to be broken now.
Study findings
Last year, RedSTART launched a landmark longitudinal multi-year study with The Policy Institute at King’s College London.
Our ‘Change the Game’ programme delivers game-based activities to introduce financial concepts and encourage primary-aged pupils to engage meaningfully with them.
We work with schools in areas of greater disadvantage, with the aim of providing access to financial education and the world of work, for children who are more likely to come across financial hardship later in life and less likely to have natural contact points with people in work, so we can give disadvantaged pupils a head start on their financial futures.
While the study is expected to run over several years, the results we’ve seen after just one year have been uplifting – and surpassed our expectations.
The evaluation of more than 3,500 children aged 6 to 8 years old across 45 schools in England and Scotland has found that the programme is already having an impact, demonstrating that early intervention in financial education is appropriate.
