Young people 'need better education about debt'
Published On 20 September 2007
The government should concentrate their efforts on educating young people about the dangers of getting in serious debt, rather than try to increase regulation in the lending sector.That's the opinion of Chris Tapp, deputy director of Credit Action, who added that the country's youth have been "educated into debt but not about debt".
He explained that rising interest rates and the ongoing credit crunch could prove important in the long term as it might be "a wake up call" and teach people that heavy personal borrowing is not always trouble free.
"I think what we need really is people to be better educated when it comes to borrowing - better educated when it comes to managing their money - and so people understand the risks they're taking on, to not simply borrow because they're able to," Mr Tapp commented.
"I think actually if people were better educated as to the risks and people were able to manage their money more carefully than they do now then that would go a long way to helping people stay more in control, and I think that would be more effective than further regulation."
Recently, moneyexpert.com published a report which showed that 40 per cent of parents had had to help their grown up children deal with a debt.
