Compulsory Consumer Finance Education Discussion

Helz_Belz_2

I think it’s really important to teach kids about tax and how to claim a tax rebate if they’ve overpaid. It seems to be the case that the tax man will be very forthcoming whenever you owe him money but when it’s the other way around he’ll stay quiet until you go to him!

Nobody ever teaches you about this and I can still remember when I was younger first embarking on the working world with small summer jobs and not understanding the importance of keeping P45’s, what they were even for, or how to claim a tax refund if I’d paid too much. I eventually took it upon myself to work it all out for myself but it was a confusing process and was difficult the first time when I hadn’t kept all my important forms in the right place!

The shocking thing is though that plenty of other people never work out that they are owed money or how to claim it back. At 28 years old I still have friends who must have been owed hundreds of pounds every year and have never claimed it. I’ve tried to explain it to some of them, but even then, many of them have not bothered and I think it’s partly because they’re intimated by the process and don’t know how to do it. Mainly as a result of doing stints of temporary work during and after university I have claimed several tax rebates over the years ranging from £100 to £1000. I therefore think it is really important for kids to understand about tax, how much they should be paying, and how to claim rebate if they’ve paid too much.

isaac12345

I think we should start with educating everyone about the monetary system, the very basics of what money is, how it comes into existence and into our bank accounts. Right now, the monetary system is set up in such a way that it is really bad for it when people save money. Heck its that bad that everytime you are paying back your debt, you are essentially destroying the amount of money in the economy. So it is in my interest for you to be forever be taking on more debt that is paid back through minimum payments. For more information check out http://www.positivemoney.org.uk/
These guys explain everything about the UK monetary system works. Once you understand this, you wont be surprised or panicking the next time the government says that we're in a recession.

antrobus

isaac12345 wrote: »

I think we should start with educating everyone about the monetary system, the very basics of what money is, how it comes into existence and into our bank accounts. ...

Good point, but you won't find the answers at 'PositiveMoney' or any of the other fractional-reserve-banking troofer websites.