Econ Info

The UK is in the grip of a severe personal debt crisis. It’s not really too surprising when you consider that this nation has more credit cards than people. But with an ever growing personal debt mountain, the Government has decided to tackle the problem at grass roots. They’re going in to schools.

Not literally of course, but the British Government recently unveiled plans to begin compulsory debt management and personal finance lessons for children in schools from as young as five. The lessons will be incorporated into the UK’s National Curriculum. This means that children from five will be getting to grips with personal finances and budgeting – albeit in a fun and child friendly manner. But will teaching children about debt really make a difference to a problem that thus far seems to have no end?

The hope is that it will make a massive difference. A major part of the problem at the moment is the consumer driven style society we live in. We can buy anything right now, without having the money and just worry about it six months down the line. Of course, what the flashy text on such hire purchase advertising fails to mention is that interest can accrue, charges for missed payments will apply and all in all we can end up paying way over the odds for an item that we’d have gotten much cheaper had we just paid cash.

The credit society is a relatively new thing. When you grandparents tell you that they never bought on credit ‘in their day,’ they’re not joking. It’s only in the last two decades that credit has exploded into popularity. Credit providers have also come under scrutiny for the ease with which they give people credit, almost encouraging debt. Because children currently have no lessons on debt management at school, they leave without any experience of dealing with credit or debt. Perhaps if they are educated on these topics, they may turn out to be a generation of savvy spenders and the debt mountain may gradually disappear. Time will tell.

Tags: Debt Management