Financial education charity Young Money is to send free copies of Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis’s financial education textbook ‘Your Money Matters’ to 700 schools in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Over 45,000 books will be sent to state-funded schools over the next 14 months, as well as a teacher’s guide. The textbook will also be available as a free PDF download.

Some 340,000 copies of the book - ‘Your Money Matters’ - were sent to secondary schools in England in November 2018.

The £368,000 cost of distributing the updated book to Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales is being shared by TV and web money guru Martin Lewis and the Money and Pensions Service (MAPS) with financial education charity Young Money running the programme.

The book is aimed at supporting the “financial capability” of young people aged 15 to 16 although it has been used across multiple year groups.

The book has been well received by teachers in England with 89% saying it would improve the quality of financial education in their schools.

The books covers topics such as savings, interest, money and mental health, budgeting, value for money, debt, earnings, tax, pensions and benefits and investments, insurance, and security and fraud.

Martin Lewis, founder of MoneySavingExpert, said: “The pandemic has shown the lack of personal financial resilience and preparedness of the UK as a whole. Not all of that can be fixed by improving financial education, but a chunk of it can. Of course, we need to educate people of all ages, yet young people are professionals at learning, so if you want to break the cycle of debt and bad decisions, they’re the best place to start.”

Sharon Davies, chief executive at Young Money and Young Enterprise, said: “We are thrilled that Young Money is able to develop the Your Money Matters textbook for every UK nation. Financial education is critically important for all young people, and it is fantastic that the difference this has already made within England can now be extended to Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.”

Sarah Porretta, strategy and insights director at the Money and Pensions Service, said: “The launch of the Your Money Matters textbook in Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland is a vital step towards more teachers having the confidence, skills and knowledge to teach financial education. As part of our UK Strategy for Financial Wellbeing, we want to see a further 2 million children and young people getting a meaningful financial education so that they become adults able to make the most of their money and pensions.”