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Financial Skills for Life

About Financial Skills for Life

At Citizens Advice we know that having the financial skills to make informed decisions at key points in life can mean the difference between a secure future and a desperate struggle.

The number of people coming to us for debt advice continues to increase. In 2010/2011 we handled 2.3 million debt enquiries. Living with unmanageable debt can adversely affect people’s lives in many ways – lowering confidence and self esteem, putting strain on relationships, causing health problems due to stress and restricting their future prospects.

Through our financial capability work we try to help people avoid falling into debt and financial crisis. We give people the knowledge skills and confidence to manage their money effectively and take responsibility for their financial decisions.

Financial capability is about giving people the knowledge skills and confidence to manage their money effectively and take responsibility for their financial decisions.

More on Financial Skills for Life

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Latest publication

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Financial Skills for Life: Building financially capable communities
Overview of the financial education work that Citizens Advice Bureaux are doing – including the partnerships we’ve successfully made and the results we get.

Taking control

Jennifer is a lone parent with two dependent children. She was receiving various benefits and paying a total of £70 per week to five doorstep lenders. She never missed a payment to these lenders, but did miss payments on her rent and council tax and was in serious arrears on her utilities.

Jennifer attended a financial capability course run by her local CAB. Afterwards she said,

"I would never use a doorstep lender again, I had no idea credit unions existed. The best thing for me was realising I could do something about my situation."