Moneywise challenges Chancellor to take teen money exam

Could Alistair Darling pass a finance test for teenagers? Personal finance website moneywise.co.uk is set to find out as it challenges the Chancellor and other high profile figures such as BBC Business presenter Declan Curry to rate their financial know-how against a sixteen year old.

Many people felt the Chancellor's first budget lacked sparkle – but Moneywise is giving him the chance to show he knows his APR from his AER. The teen test is open to anyone who wants to see how their financial acumen measures up against the teenagers currently studying personal finance in schools. The test is available at moneywise.co.uk. Moneywise has challenged a range of public figures to try their hand at the exam including:

Chancellor Alistair Darling
Children & Schools Secretary Ed Balls
Conservative Shadow Chancellor George Osborne
Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor Vince Cable
BBC Business Breakfast presenter Declan Curry
ITV News at Ten anchor Sir Trevor McDonald
5 News presenter Nathasha Kaplinsky
Northern Rock Executive Chairman Ron Sandler
London Talking host and former Blue Peter presenter Konnie Huq
Big Brother presenter Davina McCall

The challenge is part of the Moneywise campaign to promote compulsory personal finance education in schools as a stand-alone subject. Moneywise has teamed up with ifs School of Finance, which provided the teen money exam and we have also set up a petition on the prime minister's website, calling for personal finance to be taught in every school: petitions.pm.gov.uk/KidsandCash.

Moneywise editor Rachel Lacey said: "Ofsted's recent damning indictment of the state of personal finance education in our schools confirmed that it is an issue which must be addressed. We feel that when the Chancellor looks at fiscal issues he should consider the needs of tomorrow's consumers as much as today's. Young people need to be equipped with the right tools so that they can avoid debt traps – worrying research from NatWest recently indicated that teenagers are not realistic about debt, with 43% believing they'll leave university with less than £10,000 in debt, and 31% saying they think they'll never need to borrow money. There is a simple way to address this: teaching the financial ABC to teenagers. We hope that politicians and TV presenters will take the teen finance test to help raise awareness around the need for changes in the curriculum."

Anne Kiem, Director of External Affairs at the ifs School of Finance said, "At present there is no statutory requirement for schools to provide any form of personal finance education. The ifs School of Finance believes that all secondary schools should be compelled to offer their students the option to study personal finance as a standalone qualification in exactly the same way that students have the choice to take a GCSE in Geography, History, modern foreign languages and so on."