Recession 'has taught children financial lessons'

Wednesday, March 17 2010

Children will learn some difficult lessons about money from the recession, according to research from YouGov.

HSBC and the Personal Finance Education Group (pfeg) commissioned the research, which looked at the effects of the recession on British children.

And more than one third of them had heard adults say the downturn had prevented them from buying something more than once per week.

Children themselves even cut their spending because of the recession, according to one-quarter of respondents.

Some 80 per cent of the 1,000 youngsters quizzed said they would now save up money to make a purchase rather than get into debt.

Almost half of them said their family should cut back on luxuries such as toys during hard economic times.

Chief executive of pfeg Wendy van den Hende said: "The survey shows that children have very good instincts towards money and they seem to be natural savers."

But in order for this to continue later in life, the government needs to prioritise financial education, she added.

As an independent charity, pfeg states its mission to be ensuring that school leavers are confident they have the financial skills and knowledge to participate in society.