I’ve tried teaching my children about money – I’m glad schools will now do it properly

When I was at school, the way I “saved” for a rainy day was by hiding £5 notes in the backs of books and stashing them away on my bookshelf, only to forget that I’d ever put them there.

As a consequence, a) I had no money (other than the £3.32-an-hour I earned in my first job on the checkouts at a local supermarket), and b) I never spent anything, because I liked the romantic idea of finding “treasure” at some unspecified point in the future, at which point – like Daddy Warbucks in Annie – I would be rich!

In truth, what actually happened was that when my parents sold the house 20 years later and asked me to clear out my childhood bedroom, I discovered a stash of old, faded paper notes which I couldn’t spend anyway, because they were no longer legal tender.

So, now that I’m a mother, do I want my kids to rely on learning their keen financial instincts from me? Absolutely not – which is why I’m all in favour of Bridget Phillipson’s education reforms.

As part of a pledge “to give young people the skills for life and work”, the new curriculum, revealed this week, will focus on improving the basics of reading, science and maths, but adding over the next decade mandatory citizenship education and AI qualifications, along with skills in spotting misinformation, disinformation and fake news.

Learning life skills in the classroom is all part of Labour’s wider Plan for Change, and also includes – and here’s where it really gets interesting – teaching primary school-aged kids about the fundamentals of money. The government says this teaching will recognise “that children are now consumers often before they reach secondary school”, which is a bit dark and depressing, even if true – but thank God it means that I won’t have to do it.

It also couldn’t come too soon, given that financial illiteracy is still rife among millennials (like me) and Gen Z. I listened to Miss Me?, Miquita Oliver’s podcast with Lily Allen, with some horror, and more than a little recognition, as she confessed she “knew nothing about tax – absolutely nothing” before she ended up going bankrupt, aged 27.

“I come from parents who know nothing about tax,” she admitted – while revealing she was hit with a £170,000 bill after not paying taxes for three years. “They didn’t think to ask me whether I was paying tax on the money that I was earning, and I was earning a lot of money. I didn’t ask.” Miquita, now 40, was forced to sell off some of her personal possessions to pay back the debt.

Something clearly isn’t working. And it’s not just historic: I didn’t learn about personal finance at school, and only 6 per cent of today’s 16-24-year-olds say they did. Last year, research revealed that more than 11 million Britons have less than £1,000 saved for a rainy day, despite being in full-time employment. If the government can change that for our kids, I’m all for it.

I’m not a completely useless parent, I promise: my teenager has a bank card with a savings pot attached; and her £5 a week pocket money automatically takes 20 per cent out and siphons it away, so she understands the benefits of putting away a pound a week. I am hopeful that in theory, it also teaches her the basics of income tax – at least until Rachel Reeves puts it up at the Budget. If she can get used to going without 20 per cent of her “earnings” now, she will know to mimic that if/when she does a self-assessment tax return later on.

But I also have a “money pot” full of coins on the hall table that my kids help themselves to whenever they like, as long as they ask, first; and I do pay for pretty much everything. Life is too short, I usually think, to worry about chucking them a fiver so they can get a hot chocolate with their friends. Not everything has to be a “lesson”.

Except that maybe it should be. If kids don’t have parents in stable employment or who are qualified to advise them properly and sensibly about money – or if they, purely for example, have a mother who thinks that after buying food, paying the bills and setting aside what you need for uniform, trips and packed lunches, spending the rest on a pair of slippers with a diamanté lobster motif is excellent value for money – then God help them.

And thank you, Bridget Phillipson, for stepping in where the rest of us, shamefully, might be falling short.