Financial capability amongst adults with literacy and numeracy needs

Funded by: Basic Skills Agency

There is growing interest in the areas of financial capability and financial literacy, and widespread acknowledgement that consumers need to be skilled to make the right decisions and to protect themselves from making costly mistakes.

The Basic Skills Agency have commissioned PFRC to provide a detailed picture of the financial capability of people with literacy and numeracy needs by undertaking secondary analysis of existing data.

Using the Financial Services Authority's Baseline Survey of Financial Capability dataset the research will provide an overview of the variations in financial capability by educational qualifications. A number of quantitative research techniques will be used to explore:

• whether working age adults with literacy and numeracy needs have different levels of financial capability from the working age population as a whole;
• whether it is possible to identify particular characteristics that could help predict who might have the lowest levels of capability in a particular domain, and
• the aspects of financial capability that cause the greatest difficulty for adults likely to have literacy and numeracy needs.

The report, by Adele Atkinson, is aimed at practitioners and policymakers with an interest in improving financial capability amongst adults with literacy and numeracy needs in the UK.

Financial capability amongst adults with literacy and numeracy needs (Full Report) (PDF)
Financial capability amongst adults with literacy and numeracy needs (Summary) (PDF)