What a very sensible idea from a group of more than 200 MPs in today’s FT: teach children about personal finance. The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Financial Education for Young People wants financial education to become a compulsory part of the curriculum, with banks visiting classrooms.
The idea that Natwest and Barclays could send their representatives into classrooms is obviously not enormously palatable to everyone, with critics arguing that this is just another route for big business to indoctrinate innocent minds. But consider this: research from the Centre for Economics and Business Research found a lack of financial education costs the taxpayer £3.4 billion a year in debt, mis-sold financial products, failure to plan for retirement and unemployment (the CEBR estimates that financial education can reduce the risk of unemployment by 10 per cent). Meanwhile 38 per cent of consumers surveyed by Which? said they were using payday loans to pay for food or fuel, even though 48 per cent of those taking out these high-interest loans found they could not afford to repay them.
The Personal Finance Education Group says 43 per cent of young people between seven and 16 years old are worried about personal finance, and 84 per cent feel their school doesn’t do enough to teach them about money.
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