All schoolchildren in England to be taught financial literacy

Financial education will become compulsory for all primary and secondary school pupils in England as part of an overhaul of the curriculum that aims to equip students with the skills needed to navigate the modern world.

Primary-age children will be taught the fundamentals of money, how to spot fake news and be educated about climate change as part of compulsory citizenship classes from September 2028, the Department for Education said on Tuesday.

The announcement is part of the first major overhaul of England’s curriculum in more than a decade as ministers try to ensure all students leave school with key life skills and a strong foundation in reading, science and maths.

The reforms come alongside the findings of the curriculum and assessment review, which was launched by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s government last year.

Becky Francis, chair of the independent review, said financial literacy was “the most highlighted area of importance by parents” and the “one topic that was consistently raised by every single focus group” with young people.

Young people’s thirst for knowledge about money was driven by the higher inflation of recent years and the increasing digitisation of the financial world, she added.

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Children are increasingly making digital financial transactions themselves, with 71 per cent of seven to 17-year-olds making online purchases, the report found, most of whom did so without adult supervision.

Businesses, MPs and charities, including the Financial Times’ Financial Literacy and Inclusion Campaign, have repeatedly called for better financial education, which at present is only mandatory in local authority-run secondary schools.

The changes to financial education come as part of a series of reforms announced on Tuesday in response to the review, including a new statutory reading test for 12 to 13-year-olds, an overhaul of school performance metrics and a “revitalised” national curriculum.

Ministers have already committed to some of the review’s recommendations in the post-16 education and skills white paper, published last month, including a new stepping stone qualification for maths and English GCSE resits and the introduction of vocational “V-levels”.

The first major overhaul of the curriculum since 2013 follows warnings that England’s “overloaded” curriculum and over-reliance on exams have affected students’ mental health and enjoyment of learning. 

The DfE has not announced changes to GCSE assessments, but the Francis review recommended cutting the volume of exams taken by 16-year-olds by at least 10 per cent.

Myles McGinley, managing director of the exam board Cambridge OCR, welcomed the reforms but warned that “even laser-focused change will cost schools and colleges time and resources that are in short supply”. 

“With no slack in the system, schools will need support to properly implement changes. Otherwise, this will be a wasted opportunity,” he added.

The Treasury is also launching a financial inclusion strategy that will expand a pilot between the charity Shelter and five high street banks to give homeless people the ability to open bank accounts without a fixed address, removing a major barrier to paid work.

Lloyds, NatWest, Barclays, Nationwide and Santander are joining an existing pilot with HSBC, which has already helped 7,000 people.

The Treasury will also announce a plan to work with credit rating companies to ensure that victims of domestic abuse will have unfair credit scores expunged from their records.

Lucy Rigby, economic secretary to the Treasury, said: “This plan is about opening doors — helping people experiencing homelessness into work, helping survivors of abuse rebuild their credit and helping families save for a rainy day.”

Letter in response to this report:
A decisive step towards building a financially confident nation / From Vim Maru, CEO, Barclays UK, London E14, UK