I struggle with numeracy, how do I improve my financial literacy?
This was the basis for us creating spendable.
The current status quo is that a person either understands money and is trusted to manage their own or they don’t understand money so their finances are controlled and they don’t participate in their finances.
When we really broke down the reasons why people were not able to handle their own money it often came down to that they could not do the math needed to carry out a transaction.
There was math involved in working out how much money you have. There was math involved when you need to work out if you have enough money to buy something and there was math involved when you needed to work out if you are given the right change back.
If you can’t do math then you can’t complete any of those steps and because of that guardians and trustees find it easier just to let someone else manage the money and make purchases on behalf of the person rather than involving them in the purchase process.
Disclaimer: This is not an exhaustive list of all payment types that disabled people/a person with disability would face. It might be a similar situation to the one you face or it might be completely irrelevant. Either way it comes from a real person that has challenged us to solve it for them.
