New plan to help kids understand money

A bill has been put before parliament that outlines a new plan that would aim to help children around the country understand how to handle money more effectively.

The bill has been presented by the Liberal Democrat MP Sandra Gidley and if made law it would require schools across the UK to teach their pupils about personal finance issues.

Making the case for the bill to be passed, Ms Gidley claimed that almost half of all British 17-year-olds are in some sort of debt and more than a quarter of young people consider credit card debt as way of enhancing their spending power.

“In the UK, personal debt as a proportion of income is the highest it has ever been and the highest in the developed world,” she said.

“We are, quite simply, the debtor of Europe. If the problem is not to deteriorate further, we need to take action at a number of levels,” she added.

According to data from the Credit Action charity, the UK’s overall debt management burden increase by close to £1 million every five minutes.