<aside> ℹ️
Low numeracy affects half of the working-age adults in the UK. That’s nearly 17 million people.
</aside>
<aside> ℹ️
**4 out of 5 adults have low functional maths skills.**
</aside>
Dyscalculia is a specific and persistent difficulty in understanding numbers.
It makes reading, understanding, and working with numbers hard. It impacts the ability to handle money, like counting change, telling and managing time, estimating how long things take, understanding percentages, and remembering number facts.
Low numeracy affects half of the working-age adults in the UK. That’s nearly 17 million people. 1 in 5 people say they would avoid jobs that involve frequent use of numbers.
Low numeracy makes it harder and more stressful to manage money. For example, a Financial Conduct Authority 2020 survey found that those who had fallen into debt felt it might have been avoided if they had understood their options better.
Maths anxiety or a fear of maths is common in children and adults. 4 out of 5 adults have low functional maths skills. And most people will experience maths anxiety at some point.
Essential services like energy, credit and insurance cost more if you’re poor.
It’s called the poverty premium.
Some people do not have bank accounts so have no access to direct debits, which tend to be a cheaper way to pay for bills.
People who pay for energy using prepaid meters or when they get their bill each month, pay more.
If you live in a poor neighbourhood you get hit with a postcode penalty and insurance, especially car insurance, can cost more.
If you use cash to budget then you might get stung by fee-charging cash machines.
Check out Fair by Design who are tackling financial exclusion and the poverty premium.
Some of the concepts we work with in social housing are complicated, such as rent and service charge, benefits and buying a homeThese all require some ability to perform calculations and understand percentages.