Jim Shannon – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the HM Treasury

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Jim Shannon on 2015-11-16.

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps the Government is taking to reduce the indebtedness of people aged 18 to 25.

Harriett Baldwin

The government is committed to ensuring that young people can access the support they need in order to make informed financial decisions and avoid problem debt.

To ensure that young people leave school with an understanding of personal finance, financial literacy was made part of the secondary school National Curriculum in September 2014; and the mathematics curriculum has also been changed to include topics on financial decisions. This means that for the first time, young people now learn about the importance of budgeting, sound management of money, credit and debt, as well as understanding different financial services and products.

The government set up the Money Advice Service (MAS) in 2010 to enhance consumers’ understanding and knowledge of financial matters. MAS provides a single point of debt advice for consumers, including people aged 18-25, and allows those facing problems with debt to obtain free and impartial money advice. MAS also recently launched their nationwide Financial Capability Strategy, which will specifically consider how the needs of young people should inform provision going forward.

The government is currently consulting on how the provision of public financial guidance could be made more effective for consumers.