Wealth & assets

Submission: financial capability strategy response

Patrick Stevens
Patrick Stevens

This briefing sets out the Resolution Foundation’s response to the Government’s long term strategy on financial capability. This is a vital area of policy and we commend the steps taken in this strategy to improve the coordination of financial capability activity in the UK and investigate further the feasibility of a national generic financial advice resource.

Key points

  • The Government’s financial capability strategy requires coordination at an operational level and at the point of delivery, as well as a champion to raise public awareness of the issue. We believe this will require a new coordinating body, acting as an umbrella to the range of existing delivery organisations in this field
  • Financial capability programmes must be delivered coherently across the life cycle and should be seen as integrated building blocks which reinforce key messages and behaviours and have continuity of content
  • In measuring the progress of the financial capability strategy, the FSA Baseline survey should be complemented by a range of indicators measuring key outcomes of improved financial decision making
  • There is a clear link between the provision of generic financial advice and programmes to improve financial capability overall. As such, we welcome the Government’s announcement of a feasibility study to explore the potential for a national generic advice service
  • Generic financial advice suffers from a range of misconceptions which lead some to underestimate its potential and value. The Government must develop not so much a working definition, but rather an understanding of how generic advice works in practice

Further reading

Perfectly adequate?
Revisiting pensions adequacy 20 years after the Pensions Commission
·
Molly Broome, Ian Mulheirn
Calculating a Living Pension: the 2024 update
·
Molly Broome
Wealth check
What the new Government needs to know about household wealth as it navigates the challenges ahead
·
Simon Pittaway
Patrick Stevens
Patrick Stevens Trustee