Getting financial education onto the national curriculum was a 鈥減yrrhic victory鈥 and 鈥渟elf-defeating鈥, the journalist and campaigner Martin Lewis has admitted, as schools lack the resources and capacity to deliver it. The Money Saving Expert founder also revealed to MPs that his charity paid more than 拢500,000 to publish a textbook on financial numeracy because former schools minister Nick Gibb told him the state would not pay for it, in what he dubbed a 鈥減olitical failing鈥. The national curriculum was beefed up in 2014 to include more elements of financial literacy, particularly in maths. Lewis was one of the leading advocates for the move. But quizzed by the this morning, he said it was 鈥渋n many ways鈥 pyrrhic victory鈥. 鈥淚n some ways it was counter-productive. Beforehand you had volunteer groups and other people funding and providing support in schools, to go into there and teach financial education. 鈥淲e got it on the national curriculum in England. And at that point a lot of the resources were pulled from those who had been volunteering and the private sector.鈥 This was compounded by the expansion of academies, which do not have to follow the national curriculum, he added. 鈥淪o the holy grail of trying to get it taught on a compulsory basis in every school, which is what getting it on the curriculum was about, became self-defeating.鈥 ‘Not sure we changed the game’ Lewis also warned the amount of resources put into the subject by the government since then had been 鈥渃ompletely flaccid and to a detrimental level鈥. 鈥淪o while I can鈥檛 say that I regret we won the campaign at the time, I鈥檓 not sure it really changed the game in any way.鈥 He warned of a 鈥渞eal poverty of financial education鈥 across the UK. This resulted from a 鈥渓ack of resourcing for schools, a lack of resourcing for teacher training and a lack of emphasis being put on this so headteachers who are already under stretch have the ability and the want to prioritise and make sure that this is being done鈥. Lewis pointed to the 拢40 billion that was paid back to victims of the payment protection insurance mis-selling scandal. 鈥淚f 0.1 per cent of the amount of money that was mis-sold on payment protection insurance was put into financial education, which would be 拢40 million, we would absolutely completely revolutionise everything we have ever done. 鈥淎nd perhaps if we put the 拢40 million in we wouldn鈥檛 have the 拢40 billion mis-selling scandal in the first place. This is about being joined up as a society.鈥 Government refused to pay for textbook In 2021, Lewis and Young Money published Your Money Matters, a textbook on financial numeracy that has since been sent to all secondary schools in England for free. Today, Lewis revealed he spent more than 拢500,000 of his charity鈥檚 money on the resource after Gibb, then the schools minister, told him a textbook was needed but the state would not pay. Lewis said he had a 鈥渟ubstantial political objection that a private individual should be asked to pay for a textbook to go into all schools鈥. Martin Lewis reveals why he funded a textbook on financial numeracy But he 鈥渇unded it over my own objections鈥 after he 鈥渨as told quite succinctly that it was not going to happen unless I funded it鈥. The government also refused to back the textbook if it was launched through a publisher, Lewis said, 鈥渟o not only did I have to fund the writing and the distribution, we actually had to fund the publishing and the printing鈥. 鈥淲e basically had to self publish. If we didn鈥檛鈥 self publish we couldn鈥檛 get the DfE to do the letter it did to schools supporting the textbook. Now, forgive me, what a bloody farce. Is that not just ridiculous?鈥 ‘I could have put bias into textbook’ Lewis did not give himself editorial control. But he noted that a private individual funding the project 鈥渃ould have used it as a piece of propaganda鈥which] doesn鈥檛 seem right to me.鈥 Addressing minister Damian Hinds directly at the end of the hearing, Lewis said: 鈥淚 funded this textbook because the state wouldn鈥檛 and told me it had to be funded by an individual. Damian Hinds 鈥淭hat is a political failing. I could have put bias into this textbook. We need proper textbooks, digital resources, teachers to be trained.鈥 Quizzed about the state of financial education, Hinds said he was 鈥渃ontent with where we are on the maths curriculum鈥. But he stated: 鈥淚 do think there鈥檚 a further opportunity, as I say, with simplifying the process of a teacher finding the best materials to support some of these areas of teaching鈥. He welcomed the 鈥渄iversity鈥 of resources on the subject, and said government was funding Oak National Academy. However, he argued the Oak lessons did not represent a 鈥渟tandardised approach because it鈥檚 not compulsory”. Hinds added he would not “rule out” England’s future participation in the PISA international financial literacy test, which the country does not currently enter to reduce the “burden” on schools. Watch: Martin Lewis on financial education