Share Sounds. related to Financial Education - Adult

The oldest recipient of a Child Trust Fund turned 22 on Sunday 1st September, but the great majority of those allocated by HMRC (due to no action by the young person's parents by their 1st birthday) are unclaimed. This is the story of Joe, who really needs his money to get started in adult life — but he doesn't know anything about his good fortune. The Share Foundation has already enabled over 60,000 young people to claim their accounts, but that's a drop in the ocean compared to the huge number of accounts lying dormant with account providers. So The Share Foundation is now asking Government to implement its 'Default Withdrawal at 21' proposal for HMRC-allocated accounts. Background music: 'Missing Persons' by Jeremy Blake

David Willetts set out the challenge of inter-generational injustice 14 years ago in his book, 'The Pinch': but the problems have got worse, not better, during that same period of Conservative government. Young people face huge problems as a result of a fiscal environment structured to benefit older people, student debt, asset prices inflated by prolonged low interest rates — and then the pandemic: not to speak of demographic dislocations as a result of migration. Government finances may indeed require a complete overhaul, but it needs to be done in combination with resolving inter-generational injustice. Background music: 'Generations Away' by Unicorn Heads

Do you feel financially confident? When it comes to budgeting, saving, investing, and building your pension, are you clueless, comfortable, or cracking on? A piece of research this week by Moneybox claimed that being financially confident could add £67,000 to your lifetime wealth – on average those with confidence were worth £145,000 on average, compared to £78,000 for the unconfident. But what does being financially confident actually mean and how can you get there? Georgie Frost, Tanya Jefferies and Simon Lambert look at how to boost your financial confidence and whether the tips to do so could work. Plus, a week into a new government and with a planned pensions review looming, the team look at what Labour could mean for our retirement savings. Meanwhile, investors seem to be cheering Labour taking charge and this week investment giant BlackRock flagged Britain’s ‘relative political stability’ and cheap stock market, so does that mean good future returns? Investing a large sum was on the mind of a reader who asked This is Money an unusual question: I’m inheriting £10 million, should I set up an investment trust? So, what is the answer to that? And finally, a new report has revealed Britain’s best places for customer service – did your favourite make the list?

The core of the problem with unclaimed, adult-owned Child Trust Funds (of which there are over £2 billion waiting to be claimed) is with accounts opened by HMRC. That's why The Share Foundation has proposed a 'default withdrawal at 21' process, based on the young person's National Insurance number. Danny Kruger MP took part in the CTF conference in Westminster on Tuesday 5th March, and two weeks later in a Westminster Hall CTF debate, and supported this initiative which could release £1/4 billion each year to help these young and predominantly low-income young adults. Background music: 'Waiting' by Andrew Langdon

Adam Cox is in conversation with Kirsty Anderson, M&G Wealth's Pension & Saving Specialist. They delve into the findings of a recent M&G Wealth-commissioned report that underscores a noticeable decrease in households engaging in financial discussions. The conversation revolves around the crucial financial topic’s families should be addressing, emphasising the significance of having these conversations at the present moment. Kirsty sheds light on the barriers hindering open discussions about finances within families and offers valuable tips on fostering openness among loved ones regarding money matters. https://www.mandg.com/

Adam Cox is joined by Matt Dronfield from Debt Free Advice to discuss the charity's pop-up advice centres throughout the capital, offering practical money tips as part of Talk Money Week. They delve into the current debt crisis in the UK, discussing its scale and the key contributing factors. Matt also sheds light on Talk Money Week's purpose and guides individuals on where to seek help if they are concerned about their financial situation. https://debtfreeadvice.com/

Welcome to a special episode of The Financial Outlook: the investment section of the Managing My Money course. What's the difference between saving and investment? It's all in the risk. We talk about shares, bonds and funds, and which perform best over the long term. The Managing My Money course has 16 sections in total, and is presented by Glen Goodman and Annie Weston. You can enjoy the whole course, produced in association with the Open University via Share Radio's home page.

Dame Meg Hillier is Chair of the Public Accounts Committee, which has published its 25-page report into Child Trust Funds following the recent National Audit Office analysis. HMRC is asked to follow a series of recommendations to link young adults to their unclaimed accounts, including getting account providers to take more action. Young adults from disadvantaged households are most in need of the c. £2,000 waiting to be claimed in their Child Trust but an estimated one million 18-20 year-olds are not claiming their money because they don't know anything about it. As we said on 22nd May, don't waste the Child Trust Fund harvest! Background music: The Plan's Working - Cooper Cannell Image by Richard Townshend

“The [Child Trust Fund] scheme has been closed to new entrants for over 12 years. In this time HMRC has been focusing resources on evaluating and improving existing schemes. We will continue to keep the need to evaluate old schemes under review.” So said Andrew Griffith MP, Economic Secretary to HM Treasury in reply to a parliamentary question from John Ashworth MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. But this is not an 'old scheme' — there is currently over £1.7 billion sitting in mature accounts belonging to over 900,000 mainly low-income young adults throughout the UK who don't know anything about their good fortune! Their Child Trust Fund harvest is seeing too little action at present: but it's not too late to get it sorted, and the current focus from the National Audit Office and Public Accounts Committee will certainly help. Background music: 'Hopeful Freedom' by Asher Fulero

Adam Cox is joined by TJ Supreme, CEO of the TuKo app, to discuss how TuKo aims to bring every on-demand service into one easy to use application, and what the inspiration behind the company was. They delve into how the older generation may benefit from an app such as this, and how it can protect users from “cowboy” tradespeople.