London Citizens – Money Mentors 2010 programme

As part of its response to the financial crisis, the London Citizens organisation developed a pilot project to test the effectiveness of the peer-to-peer approach to improving financial capability – the Money Mentors project. Specifically, London Citizens recruited a group of undergraduates (The Money Mentors) to equip a total of 4,500 year 10 and 12 students in selected schools across London with financial skills, knowledge, confidence and experience which they could then use to teach sound financial management practices to their families and peers.

The Financial Inclusion Centre (The Centre) was asked to evaluate the effectiveness of Money Mentors as a financial capability intervention and to identify lessons to be used in the Money Mentors 2011 project and to develop a second stage, larger community based Money Mentors ‘Academy’ project.

The Centre used a combination of quantitative and qualitative assessment techniques to assess the effectiveness of Money Mentors and looked at the impact on two broad aspects of financial capability: financial behaviours, confidence and attitudes towards money matters; and financial literacy and aptitude.

Key findings

·           We found significant reported improvements amongst students in terms of behaviour, confidence and attitudes, and understanding of financial matters. Much of the noted improvement was sustained over the evaluation period. In many cases, there was a notable improvement – for example, on students saying they felt they had greater ability to keep finances under control and had more confidence about drawing up a budget.

·           The intensive, innovative and energetic style of teaching seems to be very effective at improving confidence and encouraging healthy consumer scepticism about financial products and consumption generally – it seems to make connections to students’ lives. However, with regards to practical tasks such as budgeting, these may be better delivered using a structure which allowed for regular contact (this will be built into the Academy project).

·           The Money Mentors programme seems to have had a real impact on certain aspects of financial knowledge. For example, with regards to knowledge of APR, the percentage of respondents who got the correct answer rose from 63% to 83%. Similarly, the percentage getting the answer on knowledge of AER increased by 16%. What is also very encouraging is that the results suggest that this improvement in knowledge was sustained.

·           There was some variation in views between the focus groups in the different schools. This is to be expected. However, overall the majority of the students across the groups said they found the Money Mentors approach useful, interesting and kept them engaged. The Money Mentors themselves were particularly praised.

·           Generally, the students were of the view that the Money Mentors programme improved their confidence, provided reassurance, increased interest in money matters, and prompted positive financial behaviours. Money Mentors day made them realise that money can be very complex and they need to be ‘clued up’ and sceptical about advertisements. With regards to budgeting, the overall attitude was that rather than draw up a detailed budget they would save sometimes and simply spend less when they think they need to (in a sense an informal type of mental budgeting rather than formal budgeting). 

·           Overall, the evaluation suggests that the Money Mentors approach is effective at teaching students about products and financial terms. Understanding of concepts and definitions of terms such as APR improved considerably. However, with regards to financial decisions and choices that require calculations or understanding of concepts such as the effect of compound interest, intensive one-off interventions may not be as effective. Improving this aspect of financial capability probably requires more sustained approach using practical examples.   

A summary of the evaluation can be found here: london_citizens_money_mentors_2010_project_evaluation_summary_final.pdf