Tory MP Andrew Percy reveals he's still struggling with student debt and is 'hopeless' on credit cards
Tory MP Andrew Percy has made a candid admission about his motivation for pushing compulsory financial education in schools.
Borrow and spend: Tory Andrew Percy MP is still paying off student loans
The 34-year-old MP has admitted he is still repaying his student debts and said he is ‘fairly hopeless’ at managing his credit card or knowing what mortgage rate he paid.
And he said it was likely to be worse for younger generations who were unlikely to get on the housing ladder and see a rise in property values to cover their debts.
Percy, whose Brigg and Goole constituency straddles Lincolnshire and East Yorkshire, said in a Commons debate last week that it was essential to ‘send young people out better equipped to deal with an ever-more complex financial world’.
Diana Johnson, Labour MP for Hull North, accused the Tories of stopping personal finance education becoming compulsory in the last Education Bill under the previous Government.
Jenny Chapman, Labour MP for Darlington, said money lessons in schools were only one part of the solution to tackling the consumer debt crisis. She called for tougher regulation on payday loan firms and the advertising of credit.
Yvonne Fovargue, Labour MP for Makerfield in Wigan, said most teachers supported more financial education, but many did not feel confident teaching it and that this had to be tackled.
That said, there was cross-party consensus that more could be done to improve financial literacy, starting in schools.
Schools Minister Nick Gibb said the report on financial education was timely and its recommendations would be fed into two Government reviews – one into the national curriculum and one into personal, social and health education.
‘Young people are growing up in a materialistic world for which they are often not fully prepared,’ he commented. ‘We need more competent consumers.’
It's adding up: Teacher Alison Dootson with pupils Saziye Ibrihim, Anthony Bunn, Sarah Keefe and Sam Cannon
