The latest Friends Life Visions of Britain 2020 report shows the education system in the UK is felt to have failed to provide recession hit Britons with now-needed financial knowledge. The Pensions Reform report has been compiled on behalf of Friends Life by The Future Foundation and is entitled “Pensions: The Root Problem”.
Some 83% of the UK population believes not enough is being done to educate people in financial matters, according to the study. And 63% said they wished they had received financial education lessons in school. Similarly, 65% thought that “financial advice should be provided in the workplace.”
The study by think tank the Future Foundation found that as a result of this lack of financial education only one in five people believe the nation’s children will be more savvy about money matters than previous generations, with nearly half (48%) disagreeing.
The study also found that this lack of financial awareness has had the knock-on effect that increasing numbers of school leavers and graduates have no idea where to find advice on pensions, for example, with over 65% of 18-24 year olds not knowing how to get this advice.
Martin Palmer, Head of Corporate Benefits Marketing at Friends Life, said:
“It is clear from our findings that there is a desire from the younger generation to have better knowledge on how to deal with their money matters. We are advocates of personal responsibility, but think more could be done in schools. However, we believe the workplace is the best and most effective place to provide financial education as people actually have some pay to spend and more choices to make.
“The current economic climate is not helping the situation and people will have other financial commitments or priorities, but we need to help individuals get to a position where they see the real value of putting money aside for the short, medium and longer term.”
Engagement and communication with the younger age groups is also an issue as more than a third (34%) of 18-24 year olds and over a quarter (26%) of those aged 25-44 said they found pensions “too boring” to interest them.
Palmer of Friends Life continued:
“The challenge is to start using different forms of media to communicate with people. We need to try to communicate less information but to do it in a more effective way. At the moment, as an industry, we tend to bombard people with loads of information leaving them unable to see the wood from the trees.”
