Plain Numbers and Financial Literacy

19 June 2023

In our premiere episode, Steve Coppard speaks with Ben Perkins, Head of Partnerships at Plain Numbers to discuss the UK's numeracy levels and the role companies play in supporting and communicating with their customers.

Numeracy was identified by the FCA as one of the risk factors for consumers of financial services that should be addressed in attempts to recognise consumer vulnerability.

In fact, nearly half of the working-age population in the UK has the expected numeracy level of a primary school child. The FCA also found that 34% of adults in the UK have poor - to - low levels of numeracy involving financial concepts.

With Consumer Duty placing an onus on firms to communicate information as simply as possible – what can be done to ensure customers can understand financial concepts and communicate with numbers confidently?

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About the author

Steve has been in the debt industry since 2001. He spent most of his career working in government, where he started on the phones collecting VAT debt and ended up being responsible for prompting improvements to the management of over £40bn of public sector debt. He joined Just and Arum in May 2022 where he continues to shape the biggest conversations in the debt market, having been recognised as an Influencer on the Credit 500 list for a number of years. Credit Management Magazine recently called him one of the industry’s genuine thought leaders.