Market research published report:
Children & young people’s financial capability: Four to six year olds

One of the aims of the Money and Pensions Service is to ensure all children and young people receive the financial education they need to be able to manage their money well and make the right financial decisions later in life as they become more independent of their parents/guardians.

There is a range of evidence from research on child development that indicates the importance of starting to support and encourage financial capability early, from the age of three and certainly before the age of seven.

While the 2016 Children and Young Person’s Financial Capability Survey began to understand what children aged four to six are learning about money, this research aims to explore further what financial capability looks like prior to seven years of age, how it might be measured and how it might be supported by parents and those working with children under the age of seven.

Research objectives

• What financial behaviours, skills, knowledge or attitudes can be observed amongst four to six year olds?
• Which of these financial behaviours, skills, knowledge, attitudes and experiences may be particularly valuable indicators of financial capability in practice and helpful in the development of financial capability?
• How might financial capability in four to six year olds be measured effectively to indicate higher or lower financial capability?
• What experience of financial capability do parents have and how is this communicated to their four to six year olds (if at all) currently?
• What aspects of financial capability do teachers and childcare providers communicate to four to six year olds currently?

Research programme

In 2019 the Money and Pensions Service commissioned independent research agency DJS Research to carry out qualitative research to assess the financial capability of four to six year olds.

Although qualitative in nature, we captured views and opinions from:

• 39 children aged four to six years;
• 75 parents of children aged four to six years; and
• 71 teachers and pre-school childminders/educators.

The study generated a wealth of qualitative data in the form of video output, transcripts, self-completion questionnaires and focus group activity outputs e.g. heatmaps.