SIX young people from Runcorn have been shortlisted to represent the north of England in a national competition

The Money for Life Community Challenge encourages 16-25 year olds to improve money management in their community.

Now in its fifth year, it offers young people the chance to put their financial skills into practice, work together to create social action and give back to their local community.

The competition is part of the financial education programme Money for Life which is delivered by UK Youth and funded by Lloyds Banking Group.

It aims to empower young people to make the most of their money, feel financially confident and start talking openly about money by providing online resources, face to face peer training and a savings app, Pennies to Pounds.

After successfully pitching their project idea, groups of young people from UK Youth’s network, including Nation Partners Youth Action Northern Ireland, Youth Scotland and Youth Cyrmu, were provided with £400 seed funding to bring this project to life.

This involved identifying a money issue within their community and delivering a project to tackle it.

Cheshire youth organisation and UK Youth member, Youth Fed, was shortlisted from all the entries in the north of England.

They attended the national awards event in London, where the overall UK winning project was crowned.

A group of young people from Youth Fed used the Money for Life Community Challenge grant funding to set up Sew Fed.

This project worked to develop a small business that can provide young people with skills needed to gain full time employment, using skills learnt in the programme such as budgeting and borrowing.

Alan Carr, interim chief executive officer of UK Youth, said “Through Money for Life young people are empowered with the skills needed to make the most of their money and be financial capable.

"The Community Challenge competition allows young people to practice these money management skills, create social action and give back to their local communities.

"I am delighted to see the double benefit social action has brought to the young people of Youth Fed and the communities in Cheshire."

Diane Keith, head of diversity and inclusion at Lloyds Banking Group said: “Our ambition with the Money for Life Community Challenge is to encourage young people across the UK to create new and innovative ways to help their local communities to improve money management skills.

"Supporting greater financial capability forms a key part of our wider ambition to help Britain prosper. "Congratulations to all the fantastic finalists including the young people from Youth Fed,and everyone involved in the Community Challenge, for their hard work in helping to tackle this important issue, and becoming agents of change for improving money management.”