Formed on the back of a debt-ridden financial crisis and an increasingly complex financial world, the group is calling is for compulsory financial education in schools, ensuring young people understand money, consuming and debt. It's set to be the new force behind pushing financial education up the agenda, and co-ordinating the scores of agencies already working towards it, including pfeg and moneysavingexpert.com.
Quick stats:
· The average household with debts owes £16,336 (exc. mortgages)
· Over 97% of 8,000 polled supported teaching financial education in schools
· 68% of students surveyed couldn't correctly identify the cheapest loan, only 23% expected to owe more than £20,000 after university
· Over 30,000 people signed financialeducationpetition.com
· An estimated 5,000 wrote to their MP asking them to support this group
· Bank supporters of the APPG include HSBC, Barclays, Capital One & Nationwide Building Society
· Consumer group supporters include Which?, Citizens Advice & CFEB
· It's also supported by organisations as diverse as Experian and the National Union of Students
Graham commented 'It is vital that we equip the next generation with the understanding to be able to make informed financial decisions. Only through teaching young people about personal finance can we provide them with the knowledge they need in a complex financial climate.'
'I am pleased to be a member of this group, and hope that through working together we will be able to help young people better understand the difficult choices that they will need to make.'
Martin Lewis, creator of MoneySavingExpert.com, said 'It's a national disgrace that in the 20 years since student loans launched we've educated our youth into debt, but never about debt. Now as tuition fees are getting bigger and some will pay commercial rates of interest for them, we simply can't let students take this debt out unless they know how it works.'
'What's been deeply frustrating campaigning on this over the years is while virtually everybody agrees it's needed and people often say 'I wish I'd had it', making it happen is a nightmare. That's why this co-ordinated effort is so exciting. After all, as a financially illiterate nation, it's not enough to rely on parents. Schools are the key to breaking the debt cycle leading to less mis-selling, fewer bad debts, better consumers and could save the public coffers a fortune.'