The Lord Mayor for 2008-2009, Ian Luder, took financial literacy
as his theme, and the work continues in 2009-2010 to:
Stimulate financial literacy and enterprise in schools by
increasing volunteering in financial literacy programmes by members
of Livery companies (whether in London or elsewhere in the country)
or by “City” company employees wishing to volunteer in London.
Whether you can give several hours per month or only a few hours
each year, you can make a difference to help tackle the problem of
financial literacy among young people.
Here is how you can get involved
Why financial literacy?
There are many school children who cannot use numbers. And
a deficiency uncorrected early in life means that they may never be
able to manage money, keep track of finances, plan ahead, make
informed decisions about financial products or stay up-to-date with
financial matters.
In a survey last year, the Institute of Fiscal Studies found
that 77% of the population do not understand Annual Percentage Rate
(APR), 40% admit they do not understand financial products such as
mortgages or Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs), Pensions are a
linguistic nightmare, and 30% of people do not understand the
purpose of insurance. As important, there is a clear causal
relationship between poor numeracy and worklessness. At an
individual level, the National Research and Development Centre has
found that men and women aged 30 with poor numeracy were twice as
likely to be unemployed as those with competent numeracy. Men were
at greater risk of depression; women were more likely to suffer
from low self esteem and to feel they lacked control over
their lives. A recent KPMG study found poor maths skills cost
the taxpayer £2.4 billion per year.
Whilst there are a number of bodies attempting to address this
problem, I am convinced that City businesses, other organisations
and the Livery of whatever size have a unique and
important role to play in tackling this crippling issue, both
through corporate inputs and through individual company Corporate
Social Responsibility programmes relying on volunteers.
Read about what it is like in a
volunteer's own words.
Ian Luder