Financial Education - Unplanned and Patchy

Commentary from NIACE
Published: August 2005

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has published a valuable addition to the growing body of knowledge on Financial Education – Financial Education – A review of existing provision in the UK.

The report was commissioned for presentation at the recent US/UK Dialogue on Pensions organised in Washington recently by the AARP (American Association of Retired People – an association with a staggering 36 million members across the US!) but attended by high-level representatives from Government, the academic world and non-Government organisations from both countries. DWP presented their report at this conference as part of a wide-ranging section on Financial Education.

In preparing the report, DWP acknowledges that they were only able to obtain information from the main players in the field and this leads to one of their conclusions that more investigation is required about what is actually occurring on the ground. On the one hand, the report provides an excellent conducted tour of central policy initiatives on Financial Education, pilot activity being undertaken by the Financial Services Authority and initiatives taken by those voluntary bodies with a national presence. In this respect it will be a very useful point of reference both for those already involved in the development of Financial Education and those new to the subject.

On the other hand, as the report acknowledges, there are a plethora of programmes and initiatives being undertaken across the UK by a bewildering range of organisations and about which we currently have very little organised knowledge.

In this, it highlights one of the contrasts between the state of development of Financial Education in the UK and in the US, where, for example, each year 100,000 recruits to the Armed Services have a mandatory programme of education on personal finance.

This report has indeed made an important contribution to our understanding of the present position. However, current DWP practice in vigorously promoting Financial Education is not fairly portrayed in the report’s recommendations, which in no way accurately reflect the DWP’s excellent work in supporting financial learning for the adult population.

Take a look at either the summary or the full report by following the links below. I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts and also any news of initiatives involving the financial education of adults – drop me a line at howard.gannaway@niace.org.uk

Howard Gannaway
NIACE Research Fellow in Financial Education

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