Today, almost 40 MPs and Peers signed a joint statement calling for financial education for every primary aged child across the UK, so that they leave the education system and transition into adult life with the knowledge, confidence and skills to manage their money well. This should be funded by unclaimed assets set to be released from the financial services sector by the Dormant Assets Bill. This bid for funding comes as financial education charities express deep concerns regarding speculation that there will be significant cuts to the funding allocated to financial education in the Money and Pensions Service’s (MaPS) upcoming budget.
38 MPs and Peers led by Julian Knight MP, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Financial Education, have signed a joint statement to show their commitment to high-quality and effective financial education for every primary child. This follows the launch of an inquiry by the APPG on Financial Education for Young People into primary financial education provision.
The statement, signed by Education Select Committee members David Simmonds MP, Christian Wakeford MP, Apsana Begum MP and Kim Johnson MP among others, emphasises the importance of instilling positive financial habits and attitudes towards money in children at the age these habits are first formed, as well as the need to build financial resilience in the next generation against future economic shocks, such as those experienced due to COVID-19.
In the statement, MPs and Peers also call for unclaimed assets, due to be unlocked from the saving and investment sector by the recently introduced Dormant Assets Bill, to be used to ensure every primary aged child across the UK receives an effective and high-quality financial education. However, leading financial education charities warn that the Money and Pensions Service’s goal to ensure 2 million more children and young people to receive a meaningful financial education by 2030 is at risk if speculated cuts to MaPS’ budget for financial education take place.
In a letter released today, The London Institute of Banking and Finance, MyBnk, KickStart Money, The Money Charity and Young Money express their dismay at potential significant cuts to the funding MaPS allocates to financial education in its upcoming Budget and warn this will ‘store up serious problems in the long term and risk the financial futures of the next generation’.
The organisations say the pandemic has made the case for financial education ‘more, not less, compelling, with children and young people at greater risk of growing up with financial anxiety and falling into poverty’. The charities urge MaPS not to let increased funding for debt advice be at the detriment of financial education and to ‘protect the financial futures’ of children and young people across the UK.
