Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis has told a group of MPs that every child needs financial education lessons in schools.
Financial education is important for children, and nobody is pushing for this more then Money Saving Expert, Martin Lewis. Raising a teenager with good financial literacy is likely to stand them in good stead as they enter adulthood, and can help them if they want to make money themselves. While there's are plenty of important money lessons for parents to teach their kids, Martin Lewis wants it to be part of the school curriculum, too.
Lewis recently addressed a group of MPs and peers in parliament to argue the case for financial education in schools, claiming that it’s needed “in EVERY school for EVERY child”.
He explains in his speech that the goal had been to get financial education on the curriculum, but that the rise of academies and free schools that don’t have to follow the curriculum means that only a minority of schools legally have to follow it.
"They just have to look at the national curriculum and take the guidance, but they don't have to follow it,” he continues. “And when you have strained budgets in schools, anything that you cannot teach, you don't teach, which is why it is a postcode lottery. And with the exception of the few Young Money Centres of Excellence out there, we have a poverty of financial education in our schools right now.”
He describes the funding for financial education as having “disappeared”, when teachers need training to teach the subject. He looked back at a class he taught years ago, after which the 15-year-olds in the room went home and saved their parents £5,500. Meanwhile, the teacher in the room with them saved £2,000.
“This is real. It's practical. It changes lives,” Lewis adds. “One of those pupils had a single mother who was a cleaner who was in financial trouble. He happened to be in the top set at maths at the school. He went home. He took over the family budget and revolutionised their lives.”
He continues, “I think we all need to champion it, so every child in every school is educated. We live in one of the world's most competitive consumer economies, and we do not give our young people bias training. We do not give adults bias training, and we wonder why we have 880,000 people not claiming Pension Credit, the poorest in society, who aren't going to get their Winter Fuel Payments.
"We wonder why there's a car finance mis-selling campaign going at the moment where just by my own letters, 2.3 million people have been mis-sold by what's going on. Financial education is not about providing everybody with the answers. It's providing them with the knowledge and the experience to know what questions to ask.”
He explains that financial education in schools can improve the economy, as well as tackle the rise of adverts and influencers promoting cryptocurrency – what he describes as the majority of the financial education young people are getting at the moment.
In other finance news, this child benefit rule change could see half a million parents boost their pension pots by £10,000s, while a report from last year lays bare the 'disproportionate impact' childcare has on a mother's career. Meanwhile, here’s how to get Disney+ for free and save up to £79.90 a year, and here are 14 surprising ways to spend your Tesco Clubcard vouchers - from restaurants and cinema passes to mini breaks and Disney+.
