Set financial education as primary objective, says peer

Sater is concerned because a report last month by the Centre for Social Justice found that only eight per cent of students cite schools as their main source of financial education, while a Bank of England-commissioned survey in March found that almost two-thirds of teachers cited a lack of dedicated time in the timetable for delivery.

Education minister Baroness Barran said financial education is covered in citizenship and mathematics curriculum. A school snapshot survey in 2021 showed that 86 per cent of secondary schools teach pupils how to make good decisions about money, she said, and the Government is launching webinars in the autumn to highlight the links between financial education and the curriculum, and how primary and secondary schools can improve the financial education that they deliver.

Lord Watson of Invergowrie, Labour, said the Money and Pensions Service states that money habits are formed from the age of seven, well before young people arrive at secondary school, yet only about 25 per cent of primary schoolchildren in England receive any form of financial education. Lord Watson is calling for financial education in the national curriculum in primary schools, and for government to set a target of ensuring that every primary school pupil has access to it by 2030. Baroness Barran said the Government has made a commitment to make no changes to the national curriculum during the life of this Parliament.

Lord Lee of Trafford, Lib Deb, wondered whether the financial education of young people is helped by prohibiting grandparents taking out junior ISAs for their grandchildren. The minister said she had not been aware of this.

Baroness Hussein-Ece, Lib Dem, wants a more ‘comprehensive policy’ for care leavers who she says often cannot manage their financial affairs, have missed out on the education that might have been available in schools, find themselves in desperate trouble trying to pay bills and manage and often end up homeless. Barran said the Government has introduced very specific measures along these lines to support care leavers.

Lord Vaizey of Didcot, Conservative, said children need to be aware of the ‘terrible’ proliferation of financial scams on the internet. Barran said the Minister for Schools Standards has been working with DCMS on exactly that.

Lord Cormack, Conservative, would like young people to graduate as citizens and go through the sort of ceremony that newly naturalised British subjects go through, but the minister did not seem keen on it.

The session is here.

By Hamant Verma, CIOT External Relations Officer