Young offered help to avoid debt
A UK charity has launched an initiative to help young people avoid getting into debt.
LifeLine plans to train up to 20,000 youth advisers across the country during the next two years so that they can provide young people with the knowledge and skills they need to manage their finances.
The project, Young People and Money, is part of the Financial Services Authority's £90 million financial capability strategy.
Through the intermediaries the charity hopes to reach up to 200,000 young people who have been classed as Neets (Not in Education, Employment or Training).
Nine out of 10 young people say they worry about money, but despite this many consider credit cards and overdrafts to be easy ways to spend more than they earn or buy things they cannot normally afford.
The initiative is backed by Chief Secretary to the Treasury Yvette Cooper and actor David Threlfall.
In a video message being shown at the launch of the project, Threlfall said: "With talk of the impending global recession there's a lot of scaremongering going on.
"So it's important that this forum is being created to help young people understand money.
"You walk into any shopping centre in this country and they're always offering you credit cards, and I find that a problem.
"I walk a mile from it - it's like a trap-door that opens and before you know it, you're on one of those reality shows as a spendaholic. Don't go there."
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