youthmoney

A charm offensive has begun from providers of payday loans. These companies offer cash advances to over-18s who are in work. They’re attractive because they are easy to get and don’t require a good credit history. They’re unattractive because they are very expensive, and likely to trap people in a spiral of increasing debt. Some [...]

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Great shame that the Financial Capability Award section of this year’s Children & Young People Now Awards went to a building society. Nothing against the Nationwide, or its Nationwide Education website. No doubt some  teachers find it useful. But it would have been a lot more cheering  to see the award going to a group doing some [...]

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…the skills needed to balance a budget on an inadequate income – when there are no spare resources to cope with unexpected emergencies, such as household repairs, particularly without the benefits of credit cards or a bank account – are rarely considered. Frequently, reports suggest that families in poverty are bad at budgeting. The evidence [...]

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Should a Times reader  “let” his 15-year-old daughter take a Saturday job? It’s a Times Money section reader dilemma. Give the star  answer and you could win yourself vouchers worth £25. More usefully, you could offer some thoughts on young people’s need for independence. And say a little about the relationship between power and money. [...]

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Some of the contradictions and challenges surrounding money and values education are neatly outlined in a thoughtful article by Matthew Ryder in yesterday’s Observer. Ryder is a national role model for Reach, the scheme aimed at raising the aspirations and attainment of black boys and young men. He’s commenting on recent research suggesting that role [...]

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…to win a prize. The Children & Young People Now awards again include a category on financial capability. Anyone working to improve the financial capability of young people can shout about what they do. And might win an award. Although the awards claim to be prestigious, the entries don’t have to be. A side of [...]

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Young adults are largely ignored by the personal finance pages of newspapers. This ignoral is widespread. Bizarrely, it happens even when the story is about them. Daily Telegraph’s story headlined “More than half of parents give almost £12,000 to their children” starts like this: Scottish Widows said that adult children were sapping their parents and [...]

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The BBC asked a panel of money experts to devise a quiz on financial knowledge. What did they come up with? A dog’s breakfast of drivel, exposing what is wrong with the way experts think about financial knowledge. According to this quiz, one of the main things people need to know is the details of [...]

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Maybe the Alfie story (see previous post) is not such a demonstration of financial incapability as it first seemed. The Press Complaints Commission has announced an inquiry into alleged payments by The Sun and the People to the parents of Alfie Patten. It points out that: Clause 6 (iv) of the Editors’ Code of Practice [...]

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Interviewer: What will you do financially? Alfie: What’s financially? Good question. The video clip in the Sun’s story says it all. The Sun’s columnist contributes predictable cliches: “What a damning indictment on Britain’s hugely expensive sex education programme in schools.” But why doesn’t anyone have a go about the standards of financial education. At least [...]

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