Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what plans her Department has to increase financial wellbeing throughout the UK.
Answered by John Glen
In January 2019, the Government established the Money and Pensions Service (MaPS), merging three former organisations (the Money Advice Service, The Pensions Advisory Service, PensionWise) to provide free-to-use financial guidance and offer more holistic support to customers.
In 2020, MaPS published the UK Strategy for Financial Wellbeing which sets out five national goals to improve the UK’s financial wellbeing by 2030. These include increasing the number of children and young people receiving a meaningful financial education, encouraging saving, decreasing the number of people often using credit for food and bills, increasing the availability of debt advice, and supporting financial planning for later life.
HM Treasury closely engages with MaPS on the strategy, which also includes three cross-cutting workstreams, focusing on gender, mental health and wellbeing in the workplace. MaPS are working with a wide range of stakeholders from different sectors to deliver this strategy and will publish delivery plans for the strategy in due course.