GoHenry calls on UK government to make financial education compulsory

Children’s debit card and financial education app GoHenry has launched a petition in the UK to help close Britain’s financial capability gap.

The fintech is urging the UK government to make financial education compulsory in all schools starting at primary age.

The petition has been backed by charities including The Centre for Financial Capability and MyBnk, and GoHenry has teamed up with both experts and industry campaigners to encourage the government to make a change.

“Numeracy skills are vital both in the workplace and everyday life, but we would like to see the government prioritising the practical money skills children need to navigate real-world finance successfully,” GoHenry co-founder and CEO Louise Hill said.

“That means thinking outside the box and making financial education compulsory in all primary and secondary schools.” 

Hill added that this will not only help individuals be more financially savvy, but will also encourage entrepreneurship and provide a “significant long-term economic boost to the whole country”.

“If the Prime Minister is serious about reimagining our approach to numeracy, this is the change that will make the most tangible difference,” she said.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has been moving ahead with his ‘Maths to 18’ plan to address the nation’s financial capability crisis by making it compulsory for students to study maths until the age of 18.

“Maths is all well and good but when it comes to teaching kids how to manage money in the real world, the curriculum is failing them,” it says on the GoHenry Parliament petition.

 “I don’t know a single Parliamentarian, from any party, who is opposed to the idea of giving young people a proper programme of financial education,” Conservative MP Peter Gibson said.

“As GoHenry's research suggests, this could have a transformative effect not only on the financial outcome of individuals, but on the wider economy too.”

According to research conducted by Cambridge University for the Money and Pensions Service, children form financial habits by the age of seven.

The petition says there has “never been a more important time” to prioritise money skills, and says the government can help drive levelling up, social mobility and financial equality by making space for financial education in schools.