Could Education Help Combat Financial Exclusion?

Following a written submission from the OU earlier in the year, on 29 November Jonquil Lowe, Senior Lecturer in Economics and Personal Finance, and her OU colleague Martin Upton, Director of the OU’s Centre for the Public Understanding of Finance (PUFin), were invited to give oral evidence to the House of Lords Select Committee on Financial Exclusion.

PUFin seeks to improve personal financial capability in the UK through free online education and high quality academic research, and the Select Committee quizzed Jonquil and Martin on how to build lifelong financial education that best meets people’s needs. In particular they were interested in hearing evidence of how this education should be provided, and by whom – whether the state, the market or others.

Jonquil and Martin’s evidence drew on Access to Financial Services in the UK, an FCA occasional paper co-authored by members of PUFin earlier in 2016, and Online Personal Finance Learning, a PUFin white paper evaluating the impact on financial behaviour of the PUFin MOOC, Managing My Money.

You can listen to a podcast or read a transcript of Jonquil and Martin's evidence.

In October, Jonquil also joined Martin Lewis (founder and executive chair of MoneySavingExpert.com) to give evidence to the House of Commons Public Bills Committee on Lifetime Individual Savings Accounts (LISAs). Due to be introduced from April 2017, LISAs offer tax-relief to encourage the under-40s to save over the course of their lifetime, allowing them to save for a first home and for their retirement simultaneously.

Representing the Women's Budget Group – a network of leading feminist economists, researchers, policy experts and campaigners committed to achieving a more gender-equal future – Jonquil stressed that the fact that LISAs will be available to all does not make them a non-gendered issue. Given that due to their caring roles, in general women have far less opportunity than men to take advantage of savings opportunities, she suggested it would be vital, once the scheme had been running for a while, for the government to evaluate whether the accounts do in fact meet their intended objective.

Read a transcript of Jonquil and Martin’s evidence.