Topic overview: children and young people

• Children learn vital money skills and habits between the ages of 3 and 7. 
• Financial education in different settings (school, home and community based), as well as experiential learning, supports a range of knowledge, capability and behavioural outcomes.
• Low levels of meaningful financial education leave many young people entering young adulthood without good foundations.
• Gaps in young adults’ financial knowledge mean they often delay seeking support. While family is still the most trusted source, online and social media sources are increasingly used.
• Effective interventions start early – the earlier, the better.

As children become young adults, they will face growing life pressures, responsibilities and decisions, while still continuing to develop their money skills. Therefore, it's critical that they're able to plan their finances effectively and take the right advice as they go through this key life-stage.

Helping young adults to engage with money makes a difference, as does encouraging them to engage with reliable sources of money guidance and support. People will experience better financial wellbeing as adults if they receive a meaningful financial education as children.

As they get older, young people benefit from taking increasing responsibility for managing and making choices with their money. Early financial understanding significantly improves when parents engage in child‑centred money conversations.

Children aged 4 to 6 show much higher financial understanding when parents talk to them about where money comes from, how they spend it and the choices they make.

In contrast to classroom learning, which mainly boosts knowledge, parental socialisation and experiential learning are critical for supporting financial capability, confidence, agency and self-control. Only half of all parents feel confident discussing money, and reluctance can pass to children. As a result, children are likely to be missing out on key opportunities to learn about money.

Altogether, less than half of 7 to 17-year‑olds receive meaningful financial education, and children under 11 are more likely to miss out. Those in disadvantaged households – low-income, in social housing, in rural areas or with parental mental health concerns – are also less likely to receive a meaningful financial education.

Children in single-parent and low‑income households face some of the highest financial strain. A significant minority of children aged as young as 11 experience mental health impacts from money-related stress and anxiety, and children in low-income households are more likely to worry about their family having enough money.

Young adults are more likely than older adults to struggle with bills, borrow for essentials, and lack savings and financial resilience. Cost of living concerns are a particular worry, with the vast majority of 20 to 25-year-olds often worrying about earning enough, a major contributor to stress and anxiety. 

Young adults face deeper financial vulnerability than other debt advice clients, driven by low and insufficient income. Financial strain is also common among university students, who increasingly cannot meet basic expenses.

Although they are more likely to have financial goals than other age groups, two thirds of all young adults do not have plans in place to achieve these goals. 18 to 24-year-olds are among the age groups least likely to understand pensions or have a retirement plan, and have lower levels of financial confidence than older working-age adults.

Family is the dominant source of money guidance, valued for trust and understanding. Young adults are reluctant to engage with existing formal sources of guidance around money, often feeling unmotivated, ill-equipped or mistrustful. Black teenagers show an especially strong preference for parents as trusted sources.

This makes encouraging engagement challenging. Ways to do this successfully may include targeting key transitions (moving into work, further/higher education or claiming benefits) as ‘teachable moments’, engaging young adults through trusted influencers, and channelling advice through peer or near-peer experts .

Online sources are important but must be engaging, accessible and trusted, with social media emerging as an influential channel that is valued for being relatable and anonymous.

They involve parents and experiential learning. Handling money and making small decisions is especially effective for young children, while experiential settings also support teenagers. Developing savings habits early appears to support better financial capability in adulthood.

High-quality delivery depends on trained practitioners, timely and relatable content, and tailored approaches for vulnerable groups, supported by cocreation with young people.

This is particularly true for disadvantaged groups and out‑of‑school settings, alongside shortages of trained practitioners. Digital money brings new risks – impulse spending, fraud and normalised financial risk‑taking – yet there is little consensus on effective digital financial education.

Evidence is limited on how digital money affects early learning, and robust long‑term evaluation of interventions is missing. Evidence on what works for vulnerable groups could be strengthened. Further research is needed on:

• engaging young people with guidance
• the role of social media
• the impact of financial pressures on future planning
• the links between childhood indicators and adult capability, including the role of behavioural drivers such as self‑control and perseverance.

You can also see:

• our full list of topic overviews, covering a range of themes related to financial wellbeing 
• our financial wellbeing evidence hub, a database of research and evidence.

This overview has been prepared with reference to a wide range of literature, including an earlier thematic review produced by the Money and Pensions Service.