Context

The review was commissioned by the Money and Pensions Service to gain a better understanding of how they could encourage young people to engage with money guidance and information, what makes for good quality and effective support, and how best to design and deliver it for this age group.

For the purposes of this review, young people were defined as being aged 11 to 24. 'Advice' referred to any information, guidance or other support which young people could access independently and which did not constitute regulated financial advice.

The study

Independent researchers used a rapid but rigorous approach to the search, screening and evaluation of mostly UK literature published between 2010 and 2021. The search encompassed guidance and advice in areas beyond money in order to address three main areas of enquiry:

• young people's preferred sources of guidance
• how young people engage with online information
• how information influences young people's decision-making and behaviour.

An initial 51 items of literature were returned, refined down in a further quality-led sift to a core of 47 items of academic and grey literature. 25 of these items were reviewed in full, with the remaining 22 subject to a more limited review.

Key findings

• Young people's preferred sources of guidance: Trusted family and friends were relied on first. Online sources were important but young people did not know where to find accurate, timely and trustworthy online advice, had poor financial understanding and sometimes found getting onto and navigating the online environment challenging.
• How young people engage with online information: Young people experience multiple life transitions and changing needs. Online advice models which layered or triaged the support based on need and context showed promise.
• How information influences young people's decision-making and behaviour: Multi-channel and complementary sources of information could be helpful and knowledge was found to be impacted best when the advice was accessible and perceived as reliable. However, evidence was lacking in relation to other impacts.
• Gaps in the current literature: optimising content and design features, understanding young people's perspectives, agendas and online behaviour, and impacts for young people and society.
• Key learning points for the design of effective online advice: collaboration, engaging young people, user experience and the quality of online platforms.

Points to consider

Methodological strengths/weaknesses

• The review took the form of a rapid evidence assessment, which lends robustness to its findings.
• The lack of available evidence meant that the review could not address some of the areas of interest and highlights important gaps.
• The inclusion of evidence relating to other topics subjects might have weakened the validity of the conclusions for money guidance unless it is demonstrably comparable and transferrable.
• Given substantial, recent technological developments, the authors note that some of the earlier evidence included may be outdated.

Applicability

• The study should be of interest to policymakers, funders and practitioners in the field of money guidance and financial capability intervention for young people.

Relevance:

• The findings are relevant given the financialisaton and increasing digitalisation of everyday life in the UK landscape and elsewhere, and the implications of these trends for young people's current and future financial wellbeing.

Generalisability

• The study is likely to have insights which are transferrable to other, comparable economic and cultural contexts as well as to other sectors such as careers, employment and health.
• The learning points from the study should generalise to other age (or target) groups.