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Research

Do interventions that improve financial capability work for people with low numeracy?

9 Apr 2020

This report explores the results of the Financial Capability Lab conducted in partnership between the Money and Pensions Service and the Behavioural Insights Team.

The original results, published in 2018, included some promising findings on how to improve financial comprehension and decision-making. The trials within the Financial Capability Lab showed that financial capability can be improved using behaviourally-informed interface-based interventions, as well as through information-based interventions.

A section about numeracy clearly showed that people with higher levels of numeracy have better outcomes in almost every experiment where it was measured.

Interventions that improve financial capabilitty

In this new report, linked to below, we show how the impact of some interventions on individuals with lower levels of numeracy is less clear-cut, even when the intervention had an overall positive impact.

This raises important questions for further investigation in the field and should be of interest to those implementing interventions designed to improve Financial Capability and Financial Wellbeing, as well as to those working in the wider world of behavioural insights and impact measurement.

Read the full report