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Santander: Three-fifths of UK adults fail basic money question

ended 04. December 2025

New research from Santander has revealed that seven in 10 (71%) Brits feel confident in their knowledge of money – but only 40% could answer a simple question on inflation. The research also found that financial confidence is more pronounced amongst men than women, with 77% of men saying they feel financially knowledgeable compared with two-thirds (66%) of women, yet only 45% of men and 34% of women answered the simple inflation question correctly. The question asked respondents to consider the impact of inflation halving on the cost of goods and services. Another finding of the research is that people rank financial education as the second most important subject at school, ahead of science, history and geography. Any thoughts, ASAP please.

6 responses from the Newspage community

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Rohit Parmar-Mistry
Founder at Pattrn Data
It is hardly surprising that adults are failing basic money questions when our education system is still obsessed with an industrial-era curriculum. We have government leaders who seemingly struggle with basic economics, yet we expect teenagers to leave school financially literate because they sat through a generic maths lesson?
It is the same issue I see in tech: we obsess over the complex, shiny stuff like teaching primary school kids Python, while ignoring the fundamental 'survival skills' they actually need, like understanding compound interest or how inflation erodes savings.
The fact that the public now ranks financial education above science and history speaks volumes. They know they have been short-changed. Until we treat financial literacy as a life skill rather than an optional extra, we will continue to see this embarrassing gap between confidence and competence.
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Samuel Mather-Holgate
Managing Director & IFA at Mather and Murray Financial
For years, the financial services industry has been calling for better education on money, starting at school. This report shows the drastic level of money incompetence in society that leads to money problems, and wider societal issues. Adding personal finance into the curriculum should be seen as a priority for the government, and would be easily adopted and change the face of financial intellect for the next generation.
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Scott Gallacher
Director at Rowley Turton
In most areas of life, we tend to overestimate our competence. So, it's not surprising that there's a significant difference between our confidence in our financial knowledge and what we actually know.

We've even seen senior politicians mix up key terms like deficit and debt. Also, financial jargon can be confusing, as the financial services sector often uses the same word to mean different things. For example, the simple word 'bond' means at least three different things to a financial adviser.

The lesson from this research is clear: most people should seek professional advice when it comes to financial matters, even if they think they know what they are doing.
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Tony Redondo
Founder at Cosmos Currency Exchange
There is a striking gap between perceived and actual financial literacy in the UK. The disconnect is brutally stark. While most people feel confident about their money knowledge, less than half can correctly answer a basic inflation question. The challenge lies in understanding that halving inflation doesn't mean prices fall, just that they rise more slowly, a simple distinction between the rate of change and direction of change. Encouragingly, financial education now ranks second in importance among school subjects, suggesting public recognition that this knowledge gap needs addressing. There's a clear appetite for better financial education, which makes sense given how fundamental these concepts are to everyday life, from understanding mortgages and savings to making sense of economic news. Financial literacy lessons should be mandatory in British schools to bridge this critical gap.
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Ranald Mitchell
Director at bad credit mortgage specialists Charwin Mortgages
It's alarming that seven in ten people think they understand money, yet most can’t answer the simplest question on inflation. This gap shows just how vital it is for advisers to use clearer, jargon-free language when helping customers make big financial decisions, allowing them opportunity to understand the benefits of what's on offer to them. Too many people bury their heads in the sand because they’re worried about looking stupid and that hesitation can cost them dearly. We need to empower people, not intimidate them. Financial education must be dragged into the 21st century and embedded properly in the school curriculum. Real-life, relevant money skills are no longer optional. They’re essential if we want confident, financially resilient adults.
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Colin Low
Managing Director at Kingsfleet
Since the introduction of the National Curriculum, the increasing perception is that education is taught in order for students pass exams rather than to prepare them for later life.

It would not take much for a maths course to introduce financial topics to apply subjects like percentages and fractions to real life monetary scenarios.

However, on a local level, financial professionals need to step up and offer pro-bono services to local schools and colleges to help them provide this knowledge to their teenagers which will benefit society as a whole.