There are calls for the government and schools to work together to change how maths and personal finance are taught at schools. There’s no one silver bullet to solving Britain’s lack of financial literacy and confidence, although roots to the cause can be found in the absence of financial education in the school syllabus. Overall, the financial literacy crisis could be costing the UK economy £20 billion a year. Poor financial literacy is also bad news for the economy, as a workforce that’s unable to complete basic numeracy equations weighs on productivity – a crucial cog in economic growth. This lack of basic numeracy skills isn’t just costly, it also damages confidence, which can put people off from trying to tackle more complicated financial problems, like comparing the merits of different bank accounts, savings wrappers or pension funds.Īs a result, Brits could be unnecessarily delaying reaching their financial goals by not understanding the best way to get there. This means one in three adults in England and Northern Ireland are unable to work out the correct change for a shopping trip. The wrong decisions could be increasingly costly as the UK looks to bring interest rates off their historic lows and back in line with the traditional vision of ‘normal’.Īround 17 million adults in the UK workforce have the numeracy skills of a child in primary school, research from National Numeracy shows. The UK is facing a financial literacy crisis, charity National Numeracy has warned, and it could be as damaging to the economy as Brits’ financial decision-making.įew would describe themselves as a ‘numbers person’, but this lack of financial knowledge and confidence could mean people are making poor decisions with their money. If the thought of any of these has you in cold sweats, you’re not alone. Working out your change from a shopping trip, comparing a floating mortgage rate with a fixed-rate, and picking a pension plan are just some of the everyday personal finance decisions most people have to make.
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