Ashley Lambert, mortgage and protection adviser at Your Mortgage Hub, went further, arguing the education system itself could take a more hands-on approach, saying young people need to understand credit cards, loans, interest rates, and how minimum payments can snowball into much larger debts.
Calls for education to start at school
The pattern across these accounts points to a systemic issue rather than one confined to any single broker’s client base. The UK government announced in November financial education would be added to the primary school curriculum and strengthened at secondary level, following long-running pressure from across the financial sector.
On timing, Hampton suggested a staged approach rather than a single intervention. He argued secondary school pupils could be introduced to basic concepts such as loan-to-value and mortgage terms, with more complex topics layered in later. “You could effectively drip feed buying a house into the education system the same way that maths is,” he said. “You don’t teach people complex calculations on day one. You teach them how to add up and how to take away.”
He said graduates were, in his experience, the most receptive audience because they have some life experience and a sense of their future earnings, but that earlier exposure would still help. “The process of buying a house, not just the mortgage part, should be included in the national curriculum at some level,” he said. “It would make our job much easier when we come to see first-time buyers, and it stops people making mistakes as well.”