UK consumers “financially illiterate”

“We are really financially illiterate today”, Glen Bullivant, vice president of the Institute of Credit Management, claimed at a recent event hosted by IVA.co.uk to address some of the issues surrounding Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs) and spiraling debt management difficulties seen across the country.

In reference to a perceived lack of financial education, Mr Bullivant went on to say: “I am appalled, terribly appalled, at the lack of awareness of young people…who do not know what is going on in the world around them.”

Additionally, the credit expert suggested that money lenders in the UK ought to make their advertisements for the products and services they offer less open to misinterpretation.

Figures released by the accountancy firm KPMG in February showed that the popularity of IVAs in England and Wales more than doubled over the course of 2006.