The All Party Parliamentary Group on Financial Education for Young People have recently published a report, ‘Financial Education in Schools: Two Years On – Job Done?’ The UK still faces a significant financial capability challenge, with young people affected in particular. Those aged 18-24 represent 20% of the over-indebted population of the UK and a third of young adults find themselves in this situation. The average debt-to-income ratio for 17-24 year olds now stands at nearly 70%. This problem is reflected across the wider adult population, with many adults lacking the knowledge and skills to thrive in an increasingly complex financial landscape. Four in ten adults are not in control of their finances, with over 21 million families having less than £500 in savings to cover unexpected bills. Around eight million have problems with debt. Huw was part of the inquiry panel for the Strategic oversight and third sectors session on 22 March. Those giving evidence were Martin Lewis OBE (Executive Chairman, Money Saving Expert), David Haigh (UK Financial Capability Director, Money Advice Service) and Sam Royston (Director of Policy & Research, The Children’s Society). Said Huw "The evidence given by our witnesses suggested that not enough time was being found in the school syllabus to educate young people to plan for their financial future. Young people have more choice about their spending power than ever before but will have to save longer than previous generations if they want to get on the housing ladder. When considering the enormous cost to society from financial mismanagement and debt, I was persuaded that more should be done to educate young people and help them to become better equipped to navigate the financial landscape ahead of them." There are 4 key recommendations from the report: Strengthening school provision The Government should outline its support for financial education as part of its upcoming Life Chances Strategy to help strengthen school provision. Improving teacher confidence and skillset Teacher confidence is vital if we are to maximise the impact of statutory financial education, yet less than one in five teacher have received training in this area. Encouraging coordination Given the wide range of providers of financial education, coordination is needed to make it easy for teaches to identify initiatives best suited to their school’s needs. Measuring long-term impact We need to better understand what works – and what doesn’t – in financial education so that we can improve young people’s financial capability skills in the long term. You can read the report in full here: https://goo.gl/dEiDsq