Charity champions financial education courses

There is a real lack of understanding of how to organise personal finances ifs has asserted, and as debt levels continue to rise in the UK the charity claims that qualifications would ensure that many more people would be able to avoid credit card debt.

Gavin Shreeve, chief executive of the ifs School of Finance, said: “Evidence suggests that offering students a standalone qualification in personal finance would be the most successful means of achieving higher levels of financial capability and we hope that this will be acknowledged by policymakers.”

Mr Shreeve’s comments come in response to a recent study by the Personal Finance Education Group (pfeg), which suggested that more than half of all young people face debts by the time they are 17 years old.

And pfeg also aims to introduce better education in matters relating to personal finance and credit card debt for pupils in schools around Britain.