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Categories: money and debt, press releases
Tuesday, 31 March 2009
YWCA girls talk money

Young women speak at Right on the money conference

Young women from YWCA Women's Centre in Tonbridge visited Westminster yesterday to talk about money matters affecting young people at the Right on the Money: helping young people achieve economic wellbeing conference.

Lucy Vermussche, 19, and Kaylie Coombs, 21, sat on a youth panel with their peers discussing how to get better informed about money management and avoiding huge debts.

The conference, sponsored by Barclays, was attended by influential figures in the financial and public sectors including Tom Wylie, chair of FSA young adults policy advisory group, Linda Jack, youth policy advisor of FSA Financial Capability Division and Viv McKee, Director of Policy and Research at The National Youth Agency.

Lucy said: "We wanted to talk about this with people our age and find out about they manage with money and debt. I've had to learn how to handle my money the hard way so I want others to realise how important it is to have a budget and avoid temptations like store cards."

Kayley said: "I never had the opportunity to learn money skills and I have made a few mistakes. I think that schools should do more to teach money management, to stop young people getting into debt like I have. It shouldn't just be about maths - it should be more about life outside school, part of PSHE and life skills- to prepare us for when we leave school."

Von Dawson, Project Manager at YWCA West Kent said: "This was a great opportunity for them to meet a wide, influential audience discussing how money matters to young people.

"Money management is a huge priority for us at YWCA; particularly right now when money is tight and young people are more vulnerable to supposed 'quick fixes' like loan sharks and store card offers.

"The young women feel so strongly about this that they recently made a DVD advising others on the dangers of falling into debt."