LEADING FINANCIAL SERVICES FIRMS COME TOGETHER TO CREATE A GENERATION OF SAVERS
A shared sector commitment to arm thousands of school children with essential money skills
LONDON 15 MAY 2017: Sixteen of Britain’s leading savings and investment firms, brought together by TISA, are to launch KickStart Money, a ground-breaking collaborative project that aims to initially invest £1 million to take financial education to nearly 18,000 primary school children, in a movement to build a national savings culture for the future.
The project has also been awarded £80,000 by the Money Advice Service (MAS) as part of MAS’s What Works Fund. KickStart Money was one of the 58 projects chosen by MAS to help deepen the knowledge of the most effective financial capability interventions.
Spearheaded by Rupert Pybus at Columbia Threadneedle, Jane Goodland from Old Mutual Wealth and managed by The Tax Incentivised Savings Association (TISA); KickStart Money is a serious statement of intent by the sector in response to calls for money lessons to become a compulsory element of the Primary National Curriculum. MAS research has found many fiscal habits are developed between the ages of 7-11 and that teachers and parents lack the confidence to equip young people with money skills.
Independently evaluated by Substance (a research and technology company that helps organisations that do good, think smarter) and delivered by the award winning financial education charity MyBnk, the project will reach circa 18,000 7-11 year olds in 100 schools.
KickStart Money partners: Aberdeen Asset Management, Alliance Trust Savings, Allianz Global Investors, Aviva, Axa Investment Management, BlackRock, BMO Global Asset Management, Columbia Threadneedle Investments, Henderson Global Investors, Legg Mason Global Asset Management, LGIM, Old Mutual Wealth, Prudential UK & Europe, Redington, Schroders and Standard Life.
The first initiative to be rolled out will be MyBnk’s Money Twist programme which will focuses on topics such as saving, budgeting, careers, borrowing, and consumer and public finance to help forge positive financial attitudes and behaviours in young people.
The Giving Department, a Corporate Responsibility and philanthropy agency, undertook extensive research, to gauge the state of financial education across the UK. The research identified early years as the area of greatest potential impact:
Recent MAS findings:
• Early intervention – There is increasing evidence that key behavioural attitudes to money are formed by the age of seven.
• Only 40% of 7-17 year olds say they’ve received financial education in school. Just 7% of 7-17 year olds have talked to their teachers about money. Only one third of parents talk to their children about money. Less than half (43%) of young people (aged 12 to 17) feel confident in managing their money. Furthermore, 44% of parents say they do not feel confident managing money. 9/10 of young people who learned about money at school said it was useful.
• There is a significant lack of financial education provision for children in the UK during the critical formative early years.
• Existing interventions are not operating at sufficient scale. Schools need more support to deliver financial education consistently and confidently. However, funders and commissioners do not have the evidence they need to target their funding. There is a need to know much more what works to ensure children get the high quality financial education they need.
Lord Hutton, former Secretary of State for the Department of Work & Pensions, said: “Learning about the basics of money is essential if we want to build a more financially literate nation. KickStart Money is an exciting and much needed new project aiming to help young students to understand the consequences of debt as well as the importance of saving and investing for their future.”
Suella Fernandes, MP for Fareham and Chair of the APPG inquiry into the effectiveness of financial education in UK schools, said: “Young people are growing up with far greater opportunities to spend money and a wider range of financial decisions to make. Financial education has the potential to transform people’s life chances by equipping them with the vital skills to manage their money well and plays an important role in helping young people to navigate these new financial and consumer landscapes. Kickstart Money is a great new project which will help children up and down the country to learn how to manage their personal finances, setting them up to deal with the financial challenges of later life.”
Rupert Pybus, Global Head of Brand and Marketing at Columbia Threadneedle, and a Trustee Director of the Columbia Threadneedle Foundation, said: “Significant proportions of the UK population lack the basic functional skills and knowledge to effectively manage their money. KickStart Money has been developed as a mechanism for the industry/TISA members to pro-actively and collectively transform the long-term savings behaviour of a generation.”
Jane Goodland, Responsible Business Director at Old Mutual Wealth, said: “This collaboration is truly ground breaking as it brings together some of the biggest players in the industry to tackle one of the greatest challenges of our time. Access to credit and the ability to spend online means it’s more important than ever for young people to avoid problem debt from the outset. It’s a difficult territory and landscape for young people to navigate so I’m really proud of what Kick Start Money is seeking to achieve.”
Charles McCready, Director of TISA, said: “We are thrilled to initiate an industry sponsored project with the common aim of helping future generations be more financially resilient. This builds on one of the six policy recommendations to emerge from TISA’s Savings & Investments Policy project (TSIP) which identified education as being key to improving financial wellbeing. Research shows key behavioural attitudes to money are formed by age 11, so it’s great to see TSIP’s original policy idea evolve into this targeted programme to tackle the current lack of financial education resources for children. Improving financial skills at an early age is essential and will have a significant impact in adulthood.”
Guy Rigden, CEO MyBnk said: “We are thrilled to be bringing money to life for young people in primary schools. Starting early, talking about money, playing games and imagining the future makes money fun, real, and can do so much to form good habits early. MyBnk will help young people navigate the money maze, discover opportunities and learn to avoid the pitfalls. Teachers and parents, please get in touch so we may bring expert-led financial education to your school."
For further info please visit: www.kickstartmoney.co.uk
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For media enquiries please contact:
Ella Tekdag
Columbia Threadneedle
020 7464 5082
ella.Tekdag@columbiathreadneedle.com
Vee Montebello
Old Mutual Wealth
020 7778 9550
vee.montebello@omwealth.com
Steve Radford
TISA
07889 903786
steve.radford@tisa.uk.com
Declan Wilkes
MyBnk
020 3581 9920
declan@mybnk.org