Advice on Managing Debt in Life Academy's updated Learn About Money

Life Academy has launched the updated edition of their Learn About Money workbook. This updated edition includes 2 new modules – Positive Debt Management and Pensions.

The new Positive Debt Management module is designed to help individuals manage their debt and will be of particular help to people who have concerns about how much money they owe, or who have difficulties keeping up with regular payments on money borrowed.

The module will enable people to:

• understand what debt is and how people get into debt
• understand what to do when difficulties arise
• know how to deal with organisations that are owed money
• be clear about getting out of debt and avoiding future difficulties

The second new module, on Pensions, looks at the various types of pension schemes available. It explains how Defined Benefit and Defined Contribution schemes work and what this means for the individual employee. This module will enable people to understand:

• the difference between Defined Benefit and Defined Contribution schemes
• how Defined Contribution schemes work
• the decisions required by those in Defined Contribution schemes
• the ways of taking the benefits

Learn About Money arose from concerns that many people have a worrying lack of knowledge about money matters including planning their own finances. As well as the Positive Debt Management and Pensions modules, the learning programme also includes modules on:

• understanding the concepts of money
• attitudes to money
• financial needs at different life stages
• money management
• saving and borrowing
• investment
• saving for retirement
• taxation