A LACK of financial skills is set to cost the economy £108billion over a generation – and is leaving many adults feeling they are not in control of their money.

Those are among the “harrowing” findings of research by NatWest, which has made financial capability a “purpose pillar”.

The bank has set a target to reach 2.5million people to improve their financial capability and intends to help another two million start saving by 2023.

It estimates a lack of financial capability will cost the country £108bn over 30 years.

It found four out of 10 adults felt they were not in control of their finances.

Twelve million are not saving enough for retirement and 41 per cent did not know their current account balance. Twenty-two per cent had less than £100 in savings.

Jan Cargill, the bank’s chief governance officer, told the Daily Echo: “I think the stats we look at really are quite harrowing, particularly when we talk about the lack of saving, the lack of provision for pensions in particular.

“I think the combination of it’s hard, some people would want to put their head in the sand and there’s also I think a bit of a stigma about asking other people about finances and just talking about finances.

“People are becoming much more open these days about talking about the likes of mental health but you don’t hear people talking about their financial difficulties and that’s something that we really need to take the stigma away from.”

Bruce Fletcher, the bank’s chief risk officer, said: “There would be, behind this, a lot of entrenched views about money, lack of understanding, behaviour that needs to change.

“It’s really a lifetime accumulation and generational often as well. I think there’s a big challenge that we have to help educate people and there’s a variety of programmes we have to do that but it’s a very significant issue.”

He said the bank worked with both small businesses and personal banking customers to offer practical advice as well as supporting them when they were having difficulties with debt.

The bank has run a free educational programme called MoneySense in schools for more than 25 years. It launched Island Saver, the world’s first financial education game for mobile devices, consoles and PCs, in 2018.

It offers financial “health checks” with senior personal bankers, to customers and non-customers and seeks to boost career management skills for young people, with a free CareerSense package for 13-20 year-olds.

Mr Fletcher said: “I think we have a social responsibility. Clearly, coming out of the global financial crisis we’ve had a big turnaround in terms of who we are, how we’re focused and what’s the purpose of our firm. People expect us to help, people look to us for education, and they need to know that a bank is more than just a place to go and open up a current account and get an ATM card from.”