8/7/2019 Finance Literacy Poster

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For 500,000* Irish adults low literacy levels can be a barrierto understanding and accessing financial services.

Want to be involved or need more information?

If you want to be involved, or you need more information about the

financial literacy theme for National Adult Literacy Awareness Week,

contact NALA at literacy@nala.ie or on (01) 855 4332 .

Do people get yourmoney message?

Your local contact is:

in association with

NationalAdult LiteracyAw arenessWeek  20-26 Sept 2004

*OECD International Adult Literacy Survey 1997 01 85 5 43 3 2 literacy@nala.ie ww w.nala.ie

8/7/2019 Finance Literacy Poster

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Low literacy can be a ba rrier to financial services for thousandsA quarter (OECD 1997) of Irish adults have the lowest level of literacy. This means that tens of thousands of people may not

be able to:

• fil l in a loan application form;

• read letters from their financial service company;

• wo rk out the details on a pay or benefit slip;

• follow promotional posters in a financial service’s company offices;

• understand the conditions attached to a loan; or

• plan for their future financial needs and responsibilities.

Why financial literacy?Through international research and anecdotal evidence in Ireland, the National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA) has identified low

literacy levels as a barrier to accessing and understanding financial products and services. In response to this, the Agency has

started a financial literacy campaign. The campaign will focus on management and staff who work in the financial services

sector. It will also be of interest to money advisers, the Government, regulators, utility companies, academics and adult basic

education practitioners. We aim to assist them to deal more effectively and sensitively with adults who have low literacy levels.

Benefits of the financial literacy campaign

There are many potential benefits of the financial literacy campaign:

• improved communications with clients with numeracy and literacy difficulties;

• greater customer satisfaction among clients w ith literacy difficulties;

• avoida nce of mis-selling of financial services;• transformed printed materials such as promotional po sters, forms and correspond ence;

• better equipped staff to meet the needs of a w ider client base; and

• better understanding of the considerab le problems of clients living with numeracy and literacy di fficulties.

Supports offered for the financial literacy campaign

To help financial service staff, money advisers, the Government, regulators, utility companies and academics deal more

effectively with the adult literacy issue, NALA and 126 VEC Adult Literacy Schemes are offering a range of supports.

These include:

• plain English advice, training and editorial support from N ALA;

• ‘The plain English guide to financial terms’ available from N ALA (Sept. ‘0 4 );

• Literacy Aw areness Training to give an insight into the size and complexity of the literacy issue;• involvement in events during N ational Adult Literacy W eek (N ALAW ); and

• a national conference on the 2 4 th September, Institute of Bankers, Dublin.

Want to be involved or need more information?

If you want to be involved or you need more information on these activities, contact NALA at litera cy@na la.ie or on

(01) 855 4332. You could also find details of your local VEC Adult Literacy Scheme by logging on to the NALA website,

www.nala.ie, and clicking on the ‘Schemes Directory’ (www.nala.ie/schemes/).

This campa ign is supp orted by the Irish Financia l Services Regulatory Authority, M oney Advice and Budg eting Service,

Institute of Bankers and many other financial organisations.in association with

NationalAdult LiteracyAw arenessWeek 20-26 Sept 2004