The Employee Share Ownership Centre has written to both HM Treasury and the Department for Education urging the UK Government to commit to participation in the OECD PISA Financial Literacy study.

Financial literacy is not just an educational issue, it underpins economic participation, long-term saving, investment and effective engagement with employee share ownership. Considerable effort goes into promoting share plans, but these can be undermined if people lack the basic financial understanding needed to engage with them confidently.

The UK has taken positive steps on financial education, but there remains both a significant post-16 and a lack of robust international benchmarking. Participation in PISA Financial Literacy would provide an important framework for measuring outcomes and identifying areas for improvement.