A PIONEERING scheme is being launched to try to prevent the next generation of young people in Tenbury and the Teme Valley getting caught up in a spiral of debt.

The project has been launched on a pilot basis at one school near Tenbury and it is hoped that it will soon be rolled out to all schools in the area.

Behind the scheme is Jane Newton, who set up the Tenbury No Interest Loans Scheme and is a trained debt counsellor with the Citizens Advice Bureau.

It is intended that it will help children from as young as four get into a habit of saving and make them understand how to manage money.

“There is so much pressure on young people to take out loans and get themselves in trouble,” said Jane Newton.

“Our idea is that we will get children from a very young age to get into a habit of saving and build into them an understanding of good money management.

“In many ways we need to get back to old-fashioned values that there is a cost to having something that cannot be afforded by simply borrowing the money.”

But she said that it is important to get the message across to children when they are young because, by the time that they become adults, they will be under pressure from banks and financial institutions, spending millions of pounds in advertising, to persuade them to set out on a life of debt.

Jane Newton said that debt was like a serious illness - much better prevented than trying to have cured.

She added that, while a sudden change of circumstances such as losing a job could bring about a financial crisis, many of the people that she helps through Tenbury NILS and as an advisor have simply not learned about good money-management.

The scheme that has been launched and is being run as a trial at Lindridge Primary School enables children to save money on a regular basis.

Each week, if they want, they have the chance to put some money into an account. It can be any amount from 20p upwards and does not have to be paid in each week but when money is available.

But the condition is that the money can only be withdrawn when the child leaves the school.

“Some children put in just a few pence that is left over from pocket money,” said Jane Newton.

“The amount is not important but it is learning to save and watching the fund accumulate that matters.

“We do not pay any interest but, for all practical purposes, neither do banks these days.”

Talks are being held in the hope that the scheme can be rolled out to the Tenbury High School Ormiston Academy.

When a young person leaves school and claims the money that they have saved, they are issued with a certificate.

“This could be useful to show a potential employer or to a bank if they want something to prove they are responsible with money,” said Jane Newton.