Page 62 • The HERALD • 14th July 2022 v THE HERALD - INDEPENDENT AND PROUD OF IT v BRYANT & CO Chartered Accountants & Business Advisers We provide a wide range of accounting and business services to individuals, partnerships and limited companies. We specialise in working with family owned businesses, providing guidance and advice as appropriate. Our services include: • Annual Accounts • Bookkeeping • VAT • Payroll and CIS • Personal and Corporate Tax Returns • Management Accounts • Business Advice • We also provide training on the use of Sage and Quickbooks, and the implementation of computerised and manual accounting systems. • Meetings can be arranged to suit your needs, including evenings and weekends if more convenient to you. • The initial meeting is free of charge, regardless of the length of time, as we believe it is important to develop a good working relationship from the outset. • All fees are agreed in advance of any work being undertaken. Please call Peter or Lisa on 023 8089 4982 to arrange a meeting to discuss your business needs. You can also contact Peter on 07976 808969, or email us at info@bryantandcompany.co.uk Have a look at our website www.bryantandcompany.co.uk for a fuller understanding of our business. Helen Sparks Mortgages & Financial Services Offering professional advice since 1985 Mortgages Residential Life Time Equity Release Buy to Let – first time landlords Property Portfolios Help to Buy Insurance Buildings & Contents Insurance Life Assurance Critical Illness Income Protection Private Medical Insurance YOUR PROPERTY MAY BE REPOSSESSED IF YOU DO NOT KEEP UP REPAYMENTS This firm usually charges a fee for mortgage advice. The amount of the fee will depend upon your circumstances and will be discussed and agreed with you at the earliest opportunity. Some forms of buy to let mortgage are not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. 023 8084 4108 helensparks@btconnect.com Helen Goodall T/A Helen Sparks Mortgages & Financial Services is an appointed representative of PRIMIS Mortgage Network, a trading name of First Complete Ltd which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority ASK A PROFESSIONAL Teach 7-year-olds how to pay bills, says top thinktank Primary schools should be required to provide lessons in money management to pupils, according to a new report on the parlous state of nancial education in modern Britain. Commissioned by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) in partnership with Lowell, and endorsed by Education Select Committee Chair Robert Halfon MP, the report nds that 14 million adults with experience of nancial problems believe that low money management skills had contributed to their plight. With most adult money habits set by the age of 7 according to the Money and Pensions Service, the CSJ believes radical change is needed in the classroom to tackle the problem. As the internet has become an established part of life for children from an early age, with nearly all children between 5-15 going online in 2020, the report found that the lack of nancial knowledge among children is posing unprecedented risks. For those aged 8-11, digital spending within online marketplaces and mobile games has hit record highs and according to the National Audit O ce as many as 55,000 children aged 11-16 were found to be ‘problem gamblers’, with an additional 85,000 at risk. Poor nancial education in school years leaves young adults exposed, particularly amid a rapidly evolving nancial market where new risks crop up all the time. e inquiry heard that one in eight young adults who have taken out a “buy now, pay later” credit agreement ended up being contacted by a debt collector. e report also found that learning how to manage money is a particular challenge for children from the most deprived backgrounds. e CSJ present evidence showing that children from low-income backgrounds are less likely to receive pocket money, and therefore have fewer opportunities to develop positive spending and saving habits. The accelerated move to a cashless society combined with fewer poorer children having online bank accounts has also reduced opportunities to practise money management from an early age. e CSJ cite evidence showing profound geographical disparities in nancial skills. e inquiry heard that 76% of schools with children most in need of nancial education, as de ned by the charity MyBnk, are in areas of high deprivation. Heightened levels of nancial vulnerability in the Midlands and North of England postpandemic, as revealed by Lowell and the Urban Institute’s Financial Vulnerability Index, suggest the additional need for better nancial education in areas key to the Government’s levelling up agenda. e CSJ recommends that lessons in money management are added to the national curriculum for primary schools. ere should be a legal requirement for such lessons for youngsters in secondary schools (via PSHE). Current arrangements mean nancial education is, according the report, “woefully absent” for the most disadvantaged. e report calls for dormant assets in banks, insurance, pensions and building societies – the scope of which will shortly be expanded to raise another £880 million – to cover the cost of rolling out nancial education for all pupils aged 7-11, which is estimated at £32 million per year. By comparison, one estimate found the lack of nancial education to cost the UK as much as £3.4 billion annually. ere are 28 recommendations in the report, including: • A new legal requirement for pupils to receive at least three ‘experiential’ nancial learning lessons across their school career; • A new ‘whole-family’ approach to nancial education, recognising the role of parents and carers in developing nancial literacy, using community infrastructure like Family Hubs; • New funding for care leavers and disadvantaged young adults to attend ‘justin-time’ nancial education programmes to reduce cases of rent-arrear driven homelessness among this vulnerable group; • Integrating adult nancial education as part of the Government’s £560 million adult numeracy scheme, Multiply; • Better promotion of employer nancial wellbeing policies to capitalise on ‘teachable moments’ across people’s working lives and promote the Help to Save scheme to increase uptake among those who are eligible; • e completion of the welfare reforms initiated in 2012 by rolling out ‘Universal Support’, an into-work programme which includes support for the most vulnerable in society to develop digital and nancial skills. Robert Halfon MP, Education Select Committee Chair, said: “The ‘soft’ skills which we too often denigrate in fact aren’t soft at all. Indeed, they are skills for life. This report shows how those leaving school without an effective financial education are at high risk of financial abuse, fraud and debt. Yet today only one in three children currently receives any form of financial education at primary school. We must be bolder – critically, by adding financial education to the curriculum in primary school in PHSE lessons where money management remains absent in England. Adults of all ages also need opportunities to develop critical financial skills throughout their life, whether that be in the workplace, further education or via the welfare system. This new financial education offer is needed to build the resilience in our society and our economy that buffers against cost-ofliving crises when they appear. Preparing our young people for a world and workplace with high demands of them means taking skills seriously. And money management skills are no exception.” Joe Shalam, PolicyDirector at the CSJ, said: “When Martin Lewis says he has ‘run out of tools’ for households struggling to make ends meet, any suggestion that financial education alone is the answer to people’s financial woes would be rightly dismissed as unrealistic. But it would be equally short-sighted to brush aside the important role played by financial literacy, skills and decision-making in supporting families to achieve financial wellbeing over the longer term. Too many children leave school without the basics, while young adults contend with a world of fast-evolving financial risks. Our report provides Government with a roadmap to improve financial education across the lifespan, which we hope ministers will adopt as part of welcome ambitions to build a high-skilled economy.” John Pears, UK Chief Executive at Lowell, said: “With the cost of living increases hitting home, financial literacy would be a strong barrier. Unfortunately, we just aren’t good enough at it in this country. Our own customers have told us how illprepared they felt to deal with debts. The lack of financial literacy and budgeting skills creates spirals of debt that are hard to break and have a long-lasting impact, individually and on our economy. We need to look at radical change, over the course of people’s lives, to ensure that everyone has the skills to manage their money and navigate modern financial products. We need to build proper financial resilience in the UK.”
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