Financial Education Is Broken – Here’s How We Plan To Fix It
Financial education in the UK is broken. Most young people leave school without the key money skills they need for adult life, according to their own teachers. Left unaddressed, this failure has long-term consequences. Poor money skills are linked to problem debt, lower social mobility, and poorer mental health. The recent announcement that financial education will be added to the primary school curriculum is positive, but the devil is in the detail and recommendations now must be translated into action.
As financial education will not be introduced until 2028, we need to bridge the gap now as hundreds of thousands of children will leave school without basic money skills. We know that teachers do not have the time or resources to do this alone. Without clear incentive and measurement, it is easy for financial literacy to be deprioritised.
Part of the problem is that teachers do not feel confident delivering these lessons. We need more wholesale change – a radical new approach with measurable impact.
That is why our audacious Year Six Dividend campaign matters. Through a partnership between our charity, City Pay It Forward and CityAM, we are aiming to raise £2 million to deliver free, high-quality financial education to every Year 6 child in London: roughly 65,000 pupils across 1,800 state schools.
The idea is simple but powerful. Each participating school receives a £1,000 grant to spend as it wishes. Schools are given everything they need to succeed from, clear teacher instruction, training and a comprehensive three-lesson curriculum complete with lesson plans and guidance.
We will capture real impact too: each school will complete before-and-after surveys to show how the children’s understanding of money has developed. This is no theory: it is measured in real children, real classrooms, allowing for the unique opportunity to gather data, at scale, and at source.
Why focus on Year 6? Because 11-year-olds are at a critical moment: they are beginning to form money habits which may stick for a lifetime. Children are able to get a debit card by 11. With the contactless limit now over £100 in a world in which children never touch physical money, this is the pivotal moment to embed these important life skills. By intervening here, we can lay the foundations for saving, budgeting, understanding risk, and avoidance of scams – before the habits of adolescence lock them into avoidable debt or missed opportunities.
For children and society, the benefits are clear. We are offering a life-changing skillset. This in turn builds long-term social good. By equipping young people with financial resilience, we reduce inequality, diminish debt cycles, and open pathways for social mobility. While this campaign starts in London, the design is scalable: once proven, it provides a blueprint for the rest of the UK.
For Canada and firms across the Square Mile, backing this campaign is more than philanthropy. It is responsibility and strategic foresight. The City must bridge the gap between boardroom and classroom. Supporting the next generation to become savvy savers, investors and employees helps build the future consumer and talent base.
Failure to act is no longer an option. For too long financial education has been treated as a “nice extra”. But in an age of digital wallets, scams, influencer-driven spending and increasing cost-of-living pressures, we must treat it as essential. The City has the resources, expertise and social licence to catalyse change. Now is the time for collective action.